Plants and Animals in Australia

Animals

When the earth was formed there was only one continent . About 200 million years ago Australia was separated from this big continent and animals developed differently from those that live in other places. That is why Australia has animals which you can’t find anywhere else.

Australia’s most famous animals are marsupials. They are mammals that have their babies in pouches. Kangaroos, koalas or wallabies are the best-known marsupials in Australia. The platypus is a mammal that lays eggs , from which babies hatch.

Australia has about 700 different types of birds. Among the most famous is the kookaburra. Emus are large birds that cannot fly.

There are many species of reptiles and snakes in Australia, some of which are poisonous.

Kangaroo in Eastern Australia

Plants

The eucalyptus or gum tree is a classic Australian tree. It has narrow , oily leaves that look like leather and smell good but also cause the tree to burn easily. It is one of the tallest trees in the world and can grow up to 100 metres.

Tourists who wander around in Australia can find thousands of wildflowers in the country. The seeds lie in the desert during the dry season and when it rains theyblossom in all kinds of different colours.

Koala eating eucalyptus leaves

Words

• blossom = to produce flowers
• cause = make happen
• develop =grow
• hatch = eggs break and babies come out
• mammal = an animal that drinks milk from its mother’s body when it is young
• marsupial =an animal like a kangaroo that carries its babies in a a skin pocket on its body
• narrow = not very wide = eng
• platypus = an Australian animal that looks like a duck. It lays eggs and gives milk to its babies
• poisonous =something that can be dangerous or even kill you
• pouch = a pocket of skin on an animal’s stomach
• reptile = an animal like a snake whose body temperature always changes
• seed = the small hard object of a plant or a flower
• separate = to break away from
• species = kinds or groups of