@Chlidonias and don't forget about the possum/opossum coincidence... As a child I could never remember which ones were Australian and which ones were American.
@Brum yes, I knew there was another one I should be remembering! Possum (the Australian one) is taken directly from opossum, which is derived from a North American Indian name.
Bandicoot is named after a genus of Indian rats (okay, that's not South American).
South African mammals are an other example of confusing names. Species like meerkat, eland and steenbok are whole different mammals in the original (=Dutch) language!
To get it back to the territory of the Australian jabiru: they named a couple of rivers after alligators in the Top End, instead of East Crocodile River etc.
