Found nowhere else on Earth
Australia is home to animals you simply won't find anywhere else, and this word search gathers the icons. You'll be tracking the bounding KANGAROO and smaller WALLABY, the tree-hugging KOALA, the burrowing WOMBAT, and the egg-laying oddballs, the PLATYPUS and ECHIDNA.
Each puzzle pulls a fresh selection from the outback, so the walkabout changes every time you play — gentle on Easy, and a Hard-mode bush adventure once the diagonals and backwards words appear (a DINGO may trot in backwards).
The rare and the noisy
Australia's wildlife gets wonderfully weird, and we've hidden the rare ones. Look for the tiny BILBY and NUMBAT, the spotted QUOLL, the long-nosed BANDICOOT, the hopping PADEMELON, WALLAROO and EMU, the wild BRUMBY horse, the lizard-like GOANNA and the sea-grazing DUGONG. Up in the trees, the laughing KOOKABURRA and the pink GALAH make a proper racket, while the COCKATOO and LORIKEET add a splash of colour.
An island of marsupials
Australia is full of strange animals for a simple reason: it broke away from the other continents tens of millions of years ago and drifted alone, so its wildlife evolved completely separately. The result is a land ruled by marsupials — mammals like the KANGAROO, KOALA, WOMBAT and QUOKKA that carry their tiny, jelly-bean-sized babies in a pouch until they're big enough to face the world. A kangaroo can't walk backwards and travels by bounding, covering huge distances on its powerful springy legs.
Stranger still are the monotremes — the PLATYPUS and ECHIDNA — the only mammals on Earth that lay eggs. When the first platypus skin reached scientists in Britain, they were sure it was a hoax stitched together from different animals: it has a duck's bill, a beaver's tail and webbed feet, and the males even have venomous spurs. The KOALA, meanwhile, sleeps up to 20 hours a day because its diet of eucalyptus leaves is so low in energy. All this makes Australian animals a fantastic topic for a lesson on continents, habitats and wildlife found nowhere else.
Great for a continents or unique-wildlife topic
Easy mode keeps the grid small with no diagonals or reverse words, great for a lesson on Australia and animals found nowhere else. Play online, print a PDF pack, or use Make Your Own to build a grid from your own Aussie animals.
Frequently asked questions
Which Australian animals are in the word search?
All the Down Under icons — kangaroo, koala, wombat, dingo, emu, platypus and echidna, plus rarer ones like quokka, bilby, numbat and quoll. Each puzzle uses a fresh mix.
What are marsupials, and are they included?
Marsupials are animals that carry their young in a pouch — and Australia is full of them. The KANGAROO, KOALA, WOMBAT and QUOKKA are all here, plus egg-laying oddballs like the PLATYPUS and ECHIDNA.
Does it fit a continents or unique-wildlife topic?
Perfectly. Easy mode keeps the grid small with no diagonals or reverse words, great for a lesson on Australia and animals found nowhere else.