Animals are always fun to watch, particularly their young ones, be it in safaris or in documentaries or even on stamps! In 2001 Australia Post issued a set of six commemorative stamps featuring "Australian Wild Babies on Stamps" cartoons. These stamps loaded with cookies, candy and adorable baby animals represent Kevin, the koala bear's birthday party! This is definitely a very interesting and fun way to get to know the wildlife while also creating interest in philatelics. Now let's look at the stamps on those cute Australian wild babies.
Screechy Cockatoos: Sulphur-crested cockatoo, a fairly large white cockatoo, is found in wooded areas in Australia and on some of the other islands. The showy crests and curved bills make cockatoos recognisable. Cocatoos prefer seeds, tubers, corms, vegetables , flowers and insects to feed. They sometimes eat in large flocks, particularly when they eat on land. We see here Kevin Koala, the birthday boy, enjoying a special birthday dinner on this 45c stamp as opposed to their regular diet of plain gum leaves!
Cuddly Koalas: A koala bear is a herbivorous marsupial found only in Australia. Its sturdy, tailless body and large head with small, fuzzy ears and large, spoon-shaped nose make it instantly identifiable. Koalas are mainly sedentary, sleeping up to 20 hours a day.Being marsupials, koalas give birth to underdeveloped young people who crawl into the pockets of their mothers, where they remain in their lives for the first six or seven months. We see here Kevin Koala, the birthday boy, enjoying a special birthday dinner on this 45c stamp as opposed to their regular diet of plain gum leaves!
Awesome Possums: A marsupial originated in Australia is an opossum or possum. Opossums are typically solitary and nomadic, living in one place as long as there is easy access to food and water. A 45c commemorative stamp features ring-tailed possums which are typical to Australian urban areas.Their unspecialized biology, flexible diet, and reproductive habits make them successful colonizers and survivors in many different places and conditions. The stamp shows tiny little ring-tailed infant possums feasting on snacks as a ring-tailed possum swings down with a newborn clinging to her back to join the crowd!
Babbling Bilbies: Bilbies, or rabbit-bandicoots, are marsupial omnivores found mostly in Australia, in the desert. There were two species at the time of Australia's European colonisation. In the 1950s the smaller bilby became extinct; the greater bilby survives but remains in danger.It typically has a grey or white hair, a long pointing nose and very long ears, and therefore gets its nickname, the bandicoot with the rabbit-earted. Here we see a group of happy young bilbies gathered around presents being observed by an emu and a crocodile, while in the distance a young koala is seen free-falling.
Wobbling Wombats: Wombats are short-legged, quadruped robust marsupials found in Australia. Wombats are species living on the earth and are productive burrowers. They are adaptable and habitat resistant and are present in south-eastern Australia's forested, mountainous and heathland areas, including Tasmania.Wombats are herbivores, and their diets are primarily grasses, sedges, plants, bark and roots. Such tiny fur balls are portrayed on a 45c stamp where a mum wombat happily watches her joey scale a ladder.
Jumping Joeys: A wallaby is a macropod of small or medium size found in Australia, New Guinea and New Zealand. Wallabies are herbivores whose diet consists of a wide range of grasses, vegetables, leaves and other foliage. Many wallabies now feed in rural and urban areas, owing to recent urbanization. We see a jumping mother wallaby on this stamp, joey in pack, supporting her little wallaby as he ascends the ladder. When he clings to the ladder next to a small platypus, an echidna calls her infant on beside her! What a party it must be!