5 Weird Facts You Didn’t Know about Australian Animals

Kangaroos are Breeding Machines

This is really weird but female kangaroos are constantly pregnant. Unless they are in a severely life threatening situation for a period of time, such as droughts, they have a joey outside their pouch, in their pouch and an embryo waiting in line. I think this would have been Queen Victoria’s personal hell.

Koalas Kill Trees

The little marsupials (not bears!) just dote on eucalyptus. There are hundreds of different kinds out there but the tree climbers are rather picky and will only eat 3 types, a fourth one if they have to. And since they love them so much they literally eat the trees bare, which has one result: the tree dies and the koalas have to move on. This process is never ending and in case you see a gumtree rid of leaves and without burn marks, the perpetrator were most likely koalas.

If you ever hear about the story of dropbears, don’t google it. Just be apprprioately scared. You’ll get it soon.^^

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It’s in the Cockatoo’s Eyes

Isn’t it usually like that that the male animals have to look all colourful and extravagant to attract the female, which with birds translates to a firework tinted feathers, as can be seen with parrots, for instance. The sulphur crested cockatoo, however, does not bother much with that. Males and females look exactly the same, that is apart from their eyes. If you stare deep into their black eyes and the light falls right, you can see that the female has a red circle around her pupil. Talk about rose tinted sights.

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Emu’s Fierce Stomach

Emus might not be the brightest creatures but they are pretty much well equipped when it comes to survival on one of the deadliest continents of our planet. Their kick can be lethal and they have no problem eating one unedible fruit. Their stomach is that full of acid, they can practically eat everything and it will dissolve in their bellies. The deadly plant I am talking about is not edible by any other creatures (much like koalas and the eucalyptus) but the clever Aboriginal people have found a way to prepare it, after all. It involves a long process of burning and boiling and in the end it is not even tasty. Emus seem to like it, tough.
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Wombats as the Square Ones

Wombats also do not seem to be the brightest creatures since they have to place a dump in front of their burrow in order to be able to find it again. And since that requires the poop to not roll away, they have practically invented square poop. No kidding, if you ever see a square one, there must be a wombat nearby. Coming back to their level of intelligence, they unfortunately often sit in roads and cause a lot of road accidents due to their low centre of gravity, which is like hitting a wall for the car, resulting in tumbling over and a lot of deaths.
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