• National Parks and Wildlife Foundation
  • National Parks and Wildlife Foundation
  • National Parks and Wildlife Foundation
  • National Parks and Wildlife Foundation
  • National Parks and Wildlife Foundation
  • National Parks and Wildlife Foundation
  • National Parks and Wildlife Foundation

Land Mammals

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Their future is in our hands. Female Eastern Pygmy Possum. Photo: Teresa Du Bois & Jamie Harris.
Their future is in our hands. Female Eastern Pygmy Possum. Photo: Teresa Du Bois & Jamie Harris.

Australian land mammals include monotremes such as the platypus, marsupials such as the koala and kangaroo, and placental mammals such as bats.

It seems that all Australian mammals have been affected by European settlement. Some species have benefited by the changed conditions of certain environments, such as large grazing kangaroos which have flourished due to the clearing of forests and the increases in grasslands.

However, a great deal more species have found themselves under threat as a result of human interventions. The majority of Australian land mammals appear to have decreased in range and numbers, some to the point of extinction, such as the Tasmanian Tiger.

Australian land mammals, and all species, exist in an ecosystem. An ecosystem, if undisturbed, can remain relatively stable for tens of thousands of years. Yet changes do occur, sometimes do to variations in climate, sometimes due to the shifts in balance as new species arise in the course of evolution.

Changes to ecosystems are a normal part of the cycle of life, but when changes happen too frequently for species to adapt and resestablish a balance, as is happening now with human behaviours impacting a wide range of environments and species, then biodiversity is under threat.

At the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife, our goal is to preserve land, habitats, native species of wildlife and plants so that biodiversity can be conserved in Australia.

Click any of the species below to find out about them and the Foundation's involvement in conserving them:

 
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