mammal species

Mammals are animals that maintain a constant internal body temperature and produce milk for their young. They also often have hair or fur. This group includes placental mammals, marsupials and monotremes.

Placental mammals are mammals that grow their babies inside their womb for long periods of time. They do not have a pouch like kangaroos. Almost all mammals from around the world are placentals, including humans, but here in Australia our native placental mammals are mostly bats or sea mammals.

Marsupials are mammals that keep their babies, or joeys, in a pouch on their belly. When the joey is born it is very tiny and unable to look after itself. So it crawls into the pouch where it can feed on milk and grow until it’s big enough to move around on its own. Australia has many native marsupial species, like kangaroos, koalas and sugar gliders. Marsupials are found hardly anywhere else in the world.

Monotremes are among the most evolutionarily ancient mammal species, sharing some characteristics with reptiles. While they are mammals, and produce milk to feed their young, monotremes lay eggs like reptiles, and keep their babies (called puggles) in a pouch like marsupials. There are only five species of monotreme in the world: the platypus and four different species of echidna.