Marsupials

warm blooded

Neither: they are placental mammals, meaning the young are fully developed via the placenta, and not externally, in the pouch.

The only egg laying mammals (monotremes) are found in Australia, and one species of echidna is also found in New Guinea.

The natural habitat of sugar gliders in Australia is in northern and eastern Australia, including the northern part of Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, and throughout New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and south-eastern South Australia.

The word "macropod" is a Greek word meaning long-footed.A macropod is a marsupial with powerful hind legs and long hind feet. These animals tend to use hopping and jumping as their main means of locomotion (movement). This group includes marsupials found in Australia, such as kangaroos, wallabies, tree-kangaroos, pademelons, quokkas and several others.

Kangaroos are native to the continent of Australia. Tree-kangaroos are also native to the island of New Guinea and some Indonesian islands.

Pademelons, small members of the kangaroo family, eat short green grasses, broad-leafed herbs (forbs), both fresh and fallen leaves, fruits such as figs and berries, fungi and green shoots.They also occasionally eat mosses, and even some types of insects, such as cicadas.

Numbats became vulnerable with the start of European settlement, although conservation classifications were to in place at that time. The introduction of non-native species to Australia such as foxes, and feral cats and dogs, quickly caused a considerable threat to the numbat. It is a small, quite defenceless creature, only able to protect itself by hiding in hollow logs. As European settlement expanded, their habitat was cleared for industry, agriculture and expanding human habitation. Bushfires and changed fire regimes also contributed to the numbats' increasng vulnerability. Bushfires destroy the numbats' habitat, including the logs in which it shelters. Numbats are not fast-moving creatures, and they cannot escape bushfires, which can move very quickly.

As a predator itself, the quoll, which is native to Australia, sits at the end of the food chain. Apart from people, who are a danger to most species, the main predators of the quoll are introduced species such as foxes and dogs.

• Hard nails allow them to burrow and dig
• Are mostly nocturnal
• Emit a "bark" when startled
• Discharges a horrible tasting milky substance from the top of their tails to discourage predators
• Powerful jaws

Numbats sometimes live in burrows. They commonly shelter in hollow logs, but they also dig burrows in which they leave their joeys when the baby numbats are old enough to be detached from the mother's teats.

Depending on the species, a female pademelon is ready to breed from 14-19 months of age. She will give birth to embryonic young that are extremely undeveloped. The tiny newborn joey is blind, hairless, and about the size of a bean. When it is born, it crawls into its mother's pouch where it attaches to one of the teats which swells inside the joey's mouth, ensuring it will not be dislodged when the mother moves. The joey is reay to leave the pouch permanently at about 8-9 months of age, but is likely to remain in its mother's home range until it is around 2 years old. Wild pademelons live 4-6 years, while in captivity this period extends to 8 years.

The beaver is a rodent. Rodents are placental mammals, and beavers are placental mammals, not marsupials, which are pouched mammals. Beavers are also not monotremes, or egg-laying mammals. The only monotremes are latches and echidnas.

All tough its is illegal to harm the Tasmanian devil heaps are killed on the road each year, but the main problem is their tumours. They can get these tumours on their faces which can harm them and also kill them.

It depends on the species. The Northern quoll has up to seven joeys at a time, while the Tiger quoll has up to six.

The largest of the bandicoots, the Northern Brown bandicoot, can weigh between 500 and 1700 grams for females (average 1100g) and between 500 and 3100 grams for males (average 2100g).

There are several species of bandicoot, and the smallest one, the Western Barred bandicoot, may only weigh up to 250g.

The marsupials which most match this description are the Long-nosed bandicoot and Northern brown bandicoot. These creatures forage for plants roots and plant parts, and will often eat rotting food left on the ground. They are insectivorous, but have been known to prey on creatures larger than themselves, including birds, and other small mammals. They have large, round ears and elongated snouts. They are members of the order Dasyuromorpha which also includes the better-known Tasmanian Devil, Thylacine and quolls. These creatures are carnivorous, rarely eating plants, and their snouts are elongated but not very "long-nosed".

Sugar gliders have a membrane which extends from the fifth "finger" of each hand to the first toe of each foot. When they launch out from a tree or pole, they extend their forelimbs and legs, and the membrane catches the air like a glider. They are able to glide up to 100m.

After birth, most young marsupials, known as joeys, develop in the mother's pouch on her abdomen. Within the pouch, the teat swells in the young joey's mouth to help secure it in place. The joey remains in the pouch for up to nine months, depending on the species of marsupial.

There are some exceptions to this: the numbat, for example, has no pouch. The young remain secured in place by the swollen teat in their mouth, clinging to the mother's underbelly.

Bandicoots have a pointed snout which helps them to find food. They feed on insects such as crickets, grasshoppers, cockroaches, beetles, spiders, grubs and beetle larvae. They dig for their food, and evidence of their feeding activities can be seen in suburban backyards by numerous bandicoot-snout-shaped pock-marks all over the lawn.

Bandicoots have hind feet which are much longer than their front feet. The second and third toes of each hind foot are fused together, which give them the strong base needed by hopping animals, and also a rather effective tool for grooming themselves and removing parasites from their fur.

Bandicoots' front feet have strong claws used for digging and searching for insect prey.

Numbats are endangered, and their numbers continue to drop.

The primary cause of numbats numbers being in decline is the introduction of non-native species to Australia. Introduced species such as foxes, and feral cats and dogs, pose a considerable threat to the numbat. It is a small, quite defenceless creature, only able to protect itself by hiding in hollow logs.

Another reason is habitat loss. Their habitat has been cleared for industry, agriculture and expanding human habitation.

Bushfires and changed fire regimes have also contributed to the numbats' endangerment. Bushfires destroy the numbats' habitat, including the logs in which it shelters. Numbats are not fast-moving creatures, and they cannot escape bushfires, which can move very quickly.

The koala is sometimees mistakenly called the"koala bear" by people outside of Australia. It is not a bear.

Years ago, in Australia's early days, koalas were sometimes referred to as the "native bear", but this is not a term used in Australia nowadays.

Seahorses are a type of fish, marsupials are a type of mammal, they are not the same and one can't pertain to each other's species. They have one thing in common, though, the pouch male seahorses carry in their abdomen are similar to the pouches marsupials such as kangaroos have, but in the case of marsupials, the pouch is carried by the females.

Numbats used to be quite widespread across the Australian mainland, prior to European settlement. Now they are endangered, and are found only in the far southwestern corner of Western Australia.

Numbats shelter in hollow logs and shallow burrows in Wandoo or Jarrah bushland with sufficient grassy undergrowth to give them nesting material for their burrows, and some protection from predators.