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D. Off the coast of Southern Africa, Madagascar is about 5,500 miles west of Australia. Madagascar and Australia each have thousands of native species found nowhere else on Earth. These rare species evolved during eons of ocean isolation from larger landmasses.
D. Cats arrived in Australia as pets in 1849, and the skilled hunters soon contributed to the extinction of native mammals and birds. Rabbits were brought in 1857 for recreational hunting and ended up destroying millions of acres of plant life. In 1935, cane toads were imported to control sugarcane beetles, but the toads’ toxic skin has killed millions of would-be predators.
B. In 1606, the crew of a Dutch ship made the first documented European landing and contact with Aboriginal Australians, whose ancestors had lived there for about 50,000 years. Great Britain later claimed Australia and began sending prisoners there in 1788. Colonists followed with crop seeds, pets, and livestock, some of which escaped and became wild or feral.
C. Tasmania is an island state off the southern tip of the Australian mainland. The “Black War,” from the mid-1820s to 1832, nearly exterminated the indigenous Tasmanian population. About 300 survivors were then exiled to another island. Author H.G. Wells said Tasmania’s history inspired him to write “War of the Worlds” about Martian invaders threatening human extinction.