Queensland Animals

1. Queensland Animals Tree Kangaroo Cassowary Clown Fish

2. Tree Kangaroo • The tree kangaroo is a macro pod, this means they are marsupials animals that have pouches to hold their baby’s other macro pods in Australia are Wallabies and Kangaroo’s. • You can find Tree-Kangaroo’s in far north Queensland rainforests and in New Guinea often in mountain areas. • Tree-Kangaroos have very long tails that are perfect for balance when climbing in trees and all four feet have very sharp claws and soft pads like cats and dogs feet to help with grip. • When Kangaroos move they jump with both feet at the same time unlike the Tree-kangaroo that can move each leg independently like you can.

3. Anatomy • Tree-Kangaroo’s are fantastic when in trees they can jump and climb with speed and confidence but what makes their bodies perfect for the trees makes them clumsy on the ground their big tails get in the way and forces them to lean very far forward to move. • Just because they are built for the trees does not mean they don’t have anything in common with kangaroos; they can jump too. • They are very good jumpers and can jump from tree to tree where jumps have been recorded as big as nine meters from tree to tree and even more amazing is that they have been known to have jumped from up to 15meters high and not hurt themselves at all.

4. Diet • Tree-kangaroo’s are herbivores, so they do not eat meet. • Their teeth are not very good at eating grass but are much better for eating leaves. This is good considering that they live in trees it means that they do not need to come down to the ground to feed. • By staying in the trees to eat makes them safer from predators like foxes or dingoes. • Tree-kangaroos mainly eat leaves and fruit but they also eat sap, bark or eggs of other animals.

5. Species • There is an estimated 12 species of Tree-kangaroo’s but the ones you would most likely see in Queensland are the Lumholtz’s Tree-kangaroo (Dendralagus lumholtzi) and Bennett’s Tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagous bennettianus). The rest are found in New Guinea and near by islands to New Guinea.

6. Cassowary • Cassowary’s like the Emu are large birds that cannot fly. • They live in forests in the north of Australia and New Guinea. • Cassowary’s are frugivorus this means they eat mostly fruit. Fruit off the ground or low branches. • While fruit is what they eat most they do eat other things such as snails or insects, frogs and snakes. • And Cassowary’s will protect themselves if threatened.

7. Anatomy • Cassowary’s are part of the ratie group which means big birds that cant fly like the Emu, Ostrich and Kiwi. • The southern Cassowary lives in the rainforests of far north Queensland and is a shy bird. • Not much is know about the Cassowary as it likes its privacy hiding deep in rainforests. • There are three types of Cassowary’s have blue necks and a large arc on their heads called casques. • They have three toes with very sharp claws and the middle one is up to 12cm long and can kill its enemy in just one kick.

8. Diet • Because Cassowaries feed mostly on fruit in the forests they are very important to the rainforest environment. • By eating the fruit they spread the seeds through the forest helping with dispersal and germination of the plants within the rainforest.

9. Species • There are three species of Cassowary Double-wattled or Southern Cassowary (casuarius casuarius) in QLD. Northern Cassowary (casuarius unappendiculatus) in New Guinea and Dwarf Cassowary (casuarius bennetti) in New Guinea and New Britain. • The southern Cassowary is a very big bird, biggest of all the Cassowary’s and the second heaviest in the world the first is the ostrich and are one of the few large birds left alive today from the super continent Godwana. • Both the southern and northern Cassowary’s are an endangered species because their home is under threat form deforestation. But some places are still trying to help like Mission Beach in Queensland.

10. Clown Fish or Anemone fish • There are 27 types of Clown fish that live in coral refs, they are known as Clown fish or Anemone fish because they live in sea anemone’s. • There are only two fish that can live in an anemone the Clown fish and the damselfish this is because an anemone is a water dwelling predator this means if feeds on other living things by hunting and killing them. • The anemone uses long tentacles to kill its prey but does not attack the Clown fish instead the Clown fish is free to swim through the tentacles and be protected by them and gets to feed from the anemone’s leftovers.

11. Anatomy • Clown fish are very small and brightly colored so many animals will want to eat them, this is why they need to live in the anemone they have a special coating on their skin that stops the anemone attacking them. • Once a clown fish makes a makes a home in an anemone it will not travel very far away at most 30cm this is to stay safe from other animals but can swim very fast if they have to. • Clown fish lay their eggs on flat surfaces around the anemone and when they hatch the baby’s need to find an anemone to keep safe however very few do before being eaten by other animals. • The Clown fish have a unique way of swimming and it is though that this prevents the anemone recognizing them as food because baby Clown fish do not have the special coating to protect them but are able to get into an anemone without it attacking them.

12. Diet • Clown fish are omnivores which is latten for everything like you they eat meat and greens. • The most common food for Clown fish is copepods (which are groups of crustaceans) and Mysids. • Mysidacea is a group of small creatures that look like shrimp but are very distantly related. • Crustaceans are animals with an exoskeleton this means their bones are on the outside like little suits of armor.

13. Species • There are twenty-seven species of clownfish.To name a few there are; • Allard’s Clownfish: Amphiprion allardi • Cinnamon Clownfish: Amphiprion malanopus • Clarks anemonefish: Amphiprion clarkii • Pink Skunk Clownfish: Amphiprion perideraion • Ocellaris Clownfish: Amphiprion ocellaris • Tomato Clownfish: Amphiprion frenatus • Maroon Clownfish: Premanas biaculeatus

14. For definition on Macropod’s http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macropod For definition on Marsupials http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/marsupial For definition on Tree-kangaroo’s http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree-kangaroo For pictures of Tree-kangaroo’s http://www.picsearch.com/search.cgi?q=tree%20kangaroo&start=21cols=5&thumbs=20 For information on Cassowary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassowary For definition on Frugivorous http://en.wikipediea.org/wiki/Frugivorous For definition on Ratite http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratite For the definition on Gondwana http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gondwana For pictures of Cassowary http://www.picsearch.cgi?q=cassowary&cols=5&thumbs=20 For picture of Clown fish http://www.reef.crc.org.au/discover/plantsanimals/index.html For information on Clown fish http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clownfish For definition on Crustacean http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crustacean For information on Sea Anemone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_anemone For definition of Predatory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preditory For definition of Omnivore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnivorous For information and picture of Clown fish http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/fish/printouts/clownfishprintouts.shtml For definition on Copepods http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copepods For information on Mysidacea http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysids For pictures on Clown fish http://www/aquaticsworlduk.com/clown.jpg Information on Clown fish environment and pictures http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/worldheritage/ Reference links