Photo from aardvaark’s Flickr photostream.

I’m a big fan of echidnas, with their funny noses and rolling lizardy gait, bumbling myopically through the world. They’re not traditionally cute, but they have their own unique brand of appeal. 

This one was photographed by Ian Michael Thomas. Visit his Flickr photostream for more beautiful photographs of a whole range of Aussie wildlife.

This is a brown lemuroid ringtail possum – a highly endangered little animal with a very long name. The population in the Daintree National Park in Cape York was thought to have become extinct as a result of climate change, but three living possums have just been discovered. This is good news, but they are not out of the woods by any means. 

With Earth Hour just having dominated the headlines around the world, let’s hope that we will start to see meaningful action on climate change. The survival of our wildlife, and ourselves, depends on it.

This is a bush stone curlew, Burhinus grallarius. A long-legged ground-dwelling bird the size of a large chicken, the bush stone curlew relies on its cryptic colouring to conceal itself during the day. At night, it feeds on insects, seeds, reptiles and occasionally small mammals. It has become much less common in much of its range as a result of habitat loss and predation by introduced predators. 

Image courtesy of ianmichaelthomas.

Meet Nigel the orphaned baby wombat who’s just beginning to get his fur. I love his chirpy expression in this shot below – he looks so pleased with himself and life in general:

Thanks for some fabulous wombat cutitude, koalawrangler!

A brushtailed possum and her joey visit a feeding tray in a suburban garden.

Thanks to Judi Lowell for some great shots.

Thanks again to Stewart Macdonald for the photo.

I can imagine that Lewis Carroll could have done a lot with quokkas. Perhaps featured them alongside the walrus and the carpenter, while they talked of cabbages and kings. 

Quokkas are cat-sized marsupials related to the wallabies. They are endemic to South-West Australia and because of their limited range, are classified as vulnerable. When the Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh first saw them, he assumed they were rats, and Rottnest Island near Perth got its name.

(Thanks to Stewart McDonald for the photo.)

This is an Eastern Pygmy Possum (Cercatetus nanus). Look at his beady eyes! Look at the way his tail curls! Look at the tiny little pink paws!

Such cuteness should be illegal.

From jek’s Flickr photostream – well worth a look for images of some of Australia’s more unusual wildlife. It’s not just kangaroos and koalas, people!

…this is cute. Meet Settlement Point Bea:

For non-stop koala cuteness – courtesy of Bea and others –  check out the Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie, New South Wales, which does great work rehabilitating sick and injured koalas.  They also have a blog run by koala wrangler Sam Carroll, who boasts a truly thudworthy collection of photos on Flickr. 

It’s best to set aside time for koala and general cuteness devotion, as you will be spending many hours cooing over them all. 

Bea though is one of the best.