Biology of Tasmania's distinctive fauna - Thylacine - Tasmanian Devil - Bettong - Tasmanian Native Hen...

Tasmania has been an island since the last ice age. For 12,000 years it has served as a refuge from threats that eliminated many species on the nearby Australian mainland.

European colonisation has brought new threats; habitat changes, feral competitors, exposure to new diseases; all of which are re-shaping the composition of Tasmania's once very distinctive fauna.

The Tasmanian Devil is the largest living marsupial carnivore, the Tasmanian devil is the size of a small, stoutly-built dog. Ideal for their role as Australia's only specialized mammalian scavenger ...

The Thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian wolf, formerly ranged over all of mainland Australia ...

The Tasmanian bettong, Bettongia gaimardi , is a small kangaroo. Though its range once extended over much of the coastal areas of south-eastern Australia, it is now found only in Tasmania ...

The Blue-tongued lizard is the largest skink found in Tasmania. It also occurs through the south-east of the Australian mainland ...

The sugar glider is a small gliding possum with a distribution amongst the many forest types of eastern and southern Australia. Only this smallest petaurid occurs in Tasmania ...

The Tasmanian Native Hen stands only ½ meter tall but legend credits it with a speed in excess of 50kph. Locals call it 'The Turbo Chook' but Tasmania's native hen is not related to the domestic chicken. It belongs to a group of waterfowl: the Gallinules or rails...