Wildlife Travels in Australia
Wildlife Travels in Australia
Tours, information and wildlife products:
What makes Australia such a unique place for travelers? True, we have lovely sandy beaches, fine hotels and well-known wineries and theme parks, but so do many other countries.
Euro, WA. Photo Gondwana Guides
Our uniqueness lies largely in our ecosystems, our Aboriginal culture and our very different wildlife.
Nowhere else can you watch wild kangaroos, platypus, koalas and emus. Our songbirds mostly belong to families not found in the northern hemisphere. Imagine the first white explorers seeing what they thought were deer but which suddenly bounded off on two legs, some with little faces peering from their abdomens. About half our mammals in fact carry young in pouches or pouch-like structures. Skins of patypus were first regarded as fakes – no animal could look like that! – and the later discovery that they (like their cousins the echidnas) lay eggs caused considerable consternation.
Australia has the lowest average rainfall, most unpredictable rainfall and most infertile soils of any non-polar continent, dictating the kinds of ecosystems possible and presenting difficulties our plants and animals have responded to by adapting in many amazing ways.
The history of our wildlife is vastly different to that of the rest of the world. When Australia split off from the great southern supercontinent, the only mammals it carried with it were marsupials and monotremes (egg-layers). Bats and marine mammals soon reached it, but rodents had to wait many millions of years, and then only the rats-and-mouse family crossed over from southeast Asia and New Guinea. Hoofed animals, bears, cats and dogs, monkeys and apes, and all the other groups of mammals familiar in the other continents, never reached us until brought by humans.
Australian rainforests were once extensive, but as the continent dried out many of the rainforest plants adapted to drier and drier conditions, forming unique ecosystems such as eucalypt forests and banksia woodlands. Our acaicias adapted in a way that South America, and African ones never did, most not producing true leaves after the first few weeks. These and many other differences – from rainforests with primitive plant species to vast treeless plains - make Australia a truly unique destination.
The main tourism page leads you to travel tips, tours, attractions and eco-accommodation in various states and territories of Australia. There are also a number of tour companies and other products and services that are offered in two or more states and territories or throughout Australia.
