Central Cape York Peninsula has a diverse richness of ecosystems: rainforest on the eastern fringe of the Peninsula and along the permanent watercourses in the interior, the Great Dividing Range which is the Peninsula's backbone, hilly forest country with scattered lagoons in the interior, and then the flat savanna of the gulfcountry. Many species characteristic of the "red centre" desert or the jungle rainforest of PNG across the Torres Strait have outlier populations on the Peninsula.

This produces for a rich variety of wildlife in the central Cape York Peninsula region.