The Story Behind Australia's Weird Animals

sailing south through the maze of tropical islands across Malaysia and Indonesia will lead you to an invisible barrier between two worlds. What in reality is a relatively small distance, is a huge gulf between two vastly different ecological regions. Why are the animals so different on either side of this line?

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Sources:

This video was sponsored by Brilliant.

[BugsandBiology]

Always a refreshing treat to see a video about Australian wildlife that isn’t rife with sensationalism.

[shaddonon]

8:39 man, tasmanian tigers were so beautiful. didn't realize footage existed

[ninjaskeleton]

Apart from the monotremes, the weirdest creatures in Australia are the birds, but for some reason they don’t seem to attract much attention. Australian birds are exceptional in many ways.

[arminmadari]

Thank you for keeping this videos music free and soft in the ears

[Paxility]

Sometimes, I wish the continents were more disconnected.

A world full of Australias would give so many different animal groups a stage to diversify.

Imagine a continent dominated by monotremes or only rodents.


I love every video. From the voiceover to the production they are brilliant. I clicked after 29 seconds:D

[x]

I am very happy that you’re being sponsored! I have always wondered how such a large continent‘s fauna and flora remained so isolated, even though there were potential land bridges in the past

[overworlder]

That was a pretty sick wombat. They are badly affected by endemic mange, introduced with European settlement. It kills them eventually.

[erikm]

New World marsupials (opossums) are so interesting. Once you reach central Mexico, more or less, there are more species & genera present than only the common Virginia opossum. So they blend in a lot more, I think, than here in the US, where people call them “giant rats” and stuff. 🙄Yeah, a giant rat with a pouch and 75 teeth instead of gnawing buck teeth…lol. 

They’re so misunderstood. I wanted one as a pet as a kid. And in a way, nearly got one! Not really. But on my seventh birthday, something told me to look out into the backyard; I watched as a female opossum, with five babies on her back, came clambering down the tree and proceeded to walk RIGHT UP to my window (on the ground floor). Keep in mind my family has had at least three cats at all times, too, which apparently were gone at that time. I was so shocked that this mama opossum would walk up, lay down and take a nap with her babies, RIGHT THERE in front of my window. She slept, but the babies were playing and staring at us. Best birthday gift ever. Hahaha.

[hilliard]

Yeah rodents and bats are our only native placental mammals.
Dingoes are a strange middle ground as they arrived before European colonization

[stupidmangoz]

Aw sweet!
MothLightMedia talks about subjects I never stopped to think about

[obibraxton]

Keep the frequency coming!! Love your take on Paleontology and the images you use to illustrate such animals 🙌🏾
Wish there was a Paleontologycon or something like that for nerds like me who find exotic animals and dinosaurs fascinating.

[vilisveidis]

A 20 minute MLM episode? And it's only Tuesday??!! Truly we are blessed

[_Wombat]

My relief when the original music has come back 😭 thanks Moth.

[temple]

I live here in Australia and studied ecology in Tasmania. If you ever visit I'd love to meet - I love your videos. I could show you some amazing places.

[Mgg]

was really happy seeing that Brilliant ad at the start, you deserve it

[TheUsername]

Now do a story behind Australia's weird people

[FranKoPepez]

I love when Monito del Monte is mentioned

[matthewtopping]

2:10 I hope that poor wombat with mange got the necessary treatment 😢

[jacko]

Loved the video! Just so you know though, at 11:16 you should Emu habitat not including a lot of Victoria (that southern bit), but Emus actually come all the way down to the outer reaches of Melbourne. The only reason they're not actually on our streets is because they're pretty skittish.

[nbbr]

It's always a treat when I see a new Moth Light Media video in my feed.