What is the Western Australian emblem?

The state emblems of Western Australia include the red and green kangaroo paw (Anigozanthos manglesii) as floral emblem, the numbat (Myrmecobius fasciatus) as animal emblem, the black swan (Cygnus atratus) as bird emblem, and the South Sea pearl as marine emblem. The state coat of arms displays two red kangaroos as supporters and the motto 'Cygnis Insignis' (a place distinguished by its swans).

The red and green kangaroo paw was proclaimed the state's floral emblem in 1960. The plant is endemic to south-western Western Australia and produces its distinctive red and green tubular flowers (shaped like a kangaroo's paw) in spring. The south-west of the state is one of the world's 36 recognised biodiversity hotspots, with about 8,000 plant species, of which more than half are found nowhere else on Earth. The kangaroo paw appears on the state's centenary coin and on countless Western Australian souvenirs.

The numbat was adopted as the state animal in 1973. The small marsupial, a termite-eating specialist with distinctive striped fur, once ranged across southern Australia but is now critically endangered, with only about 1,000 individuals surviving in two small populations near Perth. The black swan, which appears on the state flag and gives the state its motto, is also the bird emblem. Black swans live across all of Australia but are particularly associated with the Swan River that runs through Perth.

Western Australia's marine emblem is the South Sea pearl, produced by the silver-lipped pearl oyster (Pinctada maxima) in the warm waters of the Kimberley coast. Broome, founded in the 1880s as the centre of the Australian pearling industry, remains a working pearling town and is the source of about a quarter of the world's South Sea pearl supply. The early pearling industry brought Japanese, Malay, Filipino, and Sri Lankan workers to Broome, and the town's diverse cemetery records that history.