Australia's Weird AnimalsOf all the places on Earth I think that Australia and the islands around Australia have the largest collection of freaky weird animals that you will ever see. It seems though that the vast majority of these weird animals in Australia are marsupials for some reason.
One of the most recognizable of these weird marsupials is the kangaroo. This national symbol of Australia is found not only on the Australian coat of arms, but also on it's currency as well. There are four main types of kangaroo the red kangaroo, eastern gray kangaroo, western gray kangaroo, and the antilopine kangaroo. Out of these four types of kangaroo it is the red kangaroo that is the largest. Some of the largest red kangaroos have reached heights of 6 foot 7 inches tall and weighed in at over 200 pounds.
in the early days of European exploration many tales of these magnificent creatures were merely dismissed as just made up tales by the returning sailors and explorers. It is fairly easy to understand why when you hear how these early explorers described the kangaroo when they got back home. The kangaroo was described as having a head similar to a deer, but stood upright on two legs like a man, and then hopped away like a frog. If that wasn't enough to make you start thinking that you were being told a tall tale there was also the two headed appearance of the mothers while carrying their young in their pouches. I think if someone told me of such strange creature back in the 1700's I probably would not believe them either!
Another weird animal from Australia that actually used to prey on the kangaroo is the now extinct Tasmanian tiger. The Tasmanian tiger also know as the Tasmanian wolf or it's scientific name Thylacine was definitely a a weird looking creature. The look very similar to a funny looking wolf or dog but stripes from the shoulder to the base of the tail that are similar to the stripes of a tiger. Although these creatures were called the Tasmanian tiger or wolf they were in all actuality a type of marsupial just like the kangaroo and the koala bear.
Unfortunately these creatures were hunted to extinction with the last captive Tasmanian tiger dieing in captivity at the London Zoo in 1931. Although since that time there have been an ever increasing amount of reports of people seeing these extinct creatures.