Australia animals

Essay by laraa June 2005

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Australia is famous for it's strange animals. There are many kinds of animals living only there. We can also find there our typical animals. Sheep can be found on the West Coast and in the East. Cattle are bred on the Northwest coast and Southeast coast. We would like to introduce you some of not so common ones.

Koalas

Everyone knows these cute animals, looking like a teddy bear. Of course, they aren't really bears at all. True bears don't have pouches and their babies aren't as big as your thumbnail. The closest relative of koala is the wombat; they both have pouches, for rearing their babies. The largest koalas weight over 10 kilos and they were found in Victoria. The smallest live in North Queensland and weight only five and half kilo. They live between 10 and 20 years. They live on the trees, because they protect them from predators.

Where the trees are cut or the environment is changed by people, life can be very hard for these interesting animals. This mean open spaces, including roads, where they can be killed by cars or attacked by dogs. Female koalas can breed from about two years of age and they can have young one a year. A koala eats about half a kilogram of leaves a day. They are fussy eaters, they like only a few of eucalyptus tree. Many organisations like NSW (National Parks and Wildlife Service) protect them, because they want to survive these fascinating creatures.

Platypus

When the first platypus was sent to England, it was thought that it is a hoax animal. Its muzzle seem like a ducks bill, his tail looks like a beavers. In addition, it laids eggs, but suckles its young. It is dark brown on its back and light brown on...