Fauna
Mammals
About 60 mammal species-marsupials and placental mammals-have been recorded in the Park. Most of them inhabit the open forest and woodlands and are nocturnal, making it difficult to see them. Others, such as wallabies and kangaroos (macropods), restrict their activities to the cooler parts of the day and are easier to see.
Marsupials are born in a very immature state, minute, blind and hairless. As soon as a marsupial is born, it works its way up its mother's abdomen, usually to a pouch, and attaches itself firmly to a nipple, where it stays until it is fully developed. Although the name for this group of mammals derives from the Latin marsupium, meaning pouch, not every marsupial has a pouch, and some have only temporary pouches. Among the marsupials found in Kakadu are eight species of macropods, and various species of possum, bandicoot, quoll, phascogale and antechinus.
Unlike marsupials, placental mammals develop wholly within the mother's body and are more developed at birth. Among the placental mammals found in Kakadu are 26 species of bats, 15 native rodent species, one dog species and one dugong species.
Black Wallaroo
Common or notable mammal species
- Agile wallaby Macropus agilis Gornobolah
- Antilopine wallaby Macropus antilopinus Garnday (female) Garndagdi (male)
- Black fruit bat Pteropus alecto Na-ngamu
- Black wallaroo Macropus bernardus Barrk
- Black-footed tree-rat Mesembriomys gouldii Barri
- Brown bandicoot Isoodon macrourus Yok
- Brush-tailed phascogale Phascogale tapoatafa Wumbu
- Dingo Canis familiaris dingo Dalkgen
- Dugong Dugong dugong Mardingunjngunj
- Northern quoll Dasyurus hallucatus Njanjma
- Short-eared rock wallaby Petrogale brachyotis Badbong
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