Friday Eco-fact: Mega-diverse Wildlife

Australia has more extremely unique wildlife than any other place on Earth.  Australia has 1,350 terrestrial vertebrates that can only be found here in Australia.  The next nation with this many unique animals is Indonesia with 850 species.  Unique invertebrate species in Australia may well be over one million, which is just truly incredible when you think about it.

Australia also has huge amounts of land available to support these species.  Australia has by far the lowest human density per capita than any other nation on Earth:

Country       Human Density per sq km
India                 363.3
Phillippines        294.7
China                140.1
Mexico             55.2
USA                 32.3
Brazil                22.0
Papua-NG       12.2
Australia           2.6

However, despite Australia’s wildlife living in a nation with such a low population density, Australia has the world’s highest rate of endangered and extinct species.

*  Eco-facts can be found here.