Kids Research Express

. Numbat The numbat, Myrmecobius fasciatus, is an endangered marsupial that lives in southwestern Australia, often in eucalyptus groves. Numbats use their sensitive noses and sticky tongues to find and eat insects, especially termites. During the winter months they warm themselves by basking in the sun. Australians have created captive breeding colonies for numbats in hopes of ensuring their survival. Pangolin Four species of terrestrial and arboreal pangolins are found in forest and open savanna habitats of Africa and southern Asia. Entirely covered with large, brown, overlapping scales, the pangolin is well protected against predators. When threatened, the pangolin rolls into a tight ball, causing the sharp, free edges of the scales to rise. Pangolins eat ants and termites, which they lap up with their long, sticky tongues. Platypus The duck-billed platypus, Ornithorhynchus anatinus, found only in eastern Australia, lives in streams, rivers, and occasionally lakes with year-round wat

. Platypus (Greek platys, “broad”; pous, “foot”), also duckbill, semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal native to Tasmania and southern and eastern Australia. The animal has a bill that resembles a duck bill but is actually an elongated snout covered with soft, moist, leathery skin and sensitive nerve endings. The body of the platypus is 30 to 45 cm (12 to 18 in) long; the flattened tail measures 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 in) in length. The feet are webbed. The body and tail are covered with a thick, soft, woolly layer of fur, from which long, flat hairs protrude. The most conspicuous feature of the small head is the bill, which is about 6 cm (about 2.5 in) long and 5 cm (2 in) wide and which the animal uses for detecting prey and stirring up mud at the bottom of rivers in order to uncover the insects, worms, and shellfish on which it feeds. The head is joined directly to the body without an apparent neck. The platypus's eyes are small, and it has no external ears, but it has keen senses of sig