Alarm as 17 new species added to Aussie extinction threat list
Many of the inclusions are from Far North Queensland which is being pummelled by more frequent extreme weather events.
Australia’s national threatened species list continues to swell, with 17 new creatures added on Thursday.
In 2022, koalas and greater gliders were uplisted from vulnerable to extinction to endangered, and while this year’s new additions are lesser-known species, environmentalists are still alarmed.
Now protected under the Commonwealth's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act for the first time are birds, fish, a turtle, several lizards and an earthworm known only to occur on Lord Howe Island. One of the new additions, the Daintree rainbowfish was first discovered in 2018 and it's already listed as critically endangered.
The news comes just over a week since the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List was updated to include new Australian species, including the iconic Palm cockatoo.
The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) responded to the new listings by urging the government to do more to protect the country’s native species and fund their recovery. It is particularly concerned that many of the inclusions are from Far North Queensland, which is being pummelled by more frequent extreme weather events because of climate change.
Two of the new listings, the Mertens’ water monitor and Mitchell’s water monitor had already been impacted by the spread of cane toads, but now ACF warns their habitat is being eroded by agriculture, mining and real estate.
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Protecting Australia's wildlife is 'critical'
The non-profit’s nature campaigner Peta Bulling said Australia has a “terrible record” for protecting its unique species of animals and plants.
“Australia is home to more than 10 per cent of the world’s total reptile species. With 93 per cent of our reptiles found nowhere else on earth it’s critical we protect our unique scaly wildlife,” she said.
“As conservation efforts often focus on the ‘cute and cuddlies’ it’s easy to forget about the unique reptiles that call our big backyard home. But the recent listing of 11 new species of reptile is a poignant reminder that governments and businesses are not doing enough to protect Australia’s reptiles.”
Some species facing extinction
The list of new additions includes the migratory Sooty Shearwater which live in small islands across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and were once so prolific, they are believed to have inspired director Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 thriller The Birds.
The Indian Ocean red-tailed tropicbird was nominated to be listed as vulnerable to extinction, but was subsequently found to be endangered. Two of the fish species now recognised as facing extinction are the Cairns rainbowfish and Moroka galaxias.
New reptile listings include the Northern snow skink, Southern snow skink, Boulder cool-skink, Jardine River turtle, Arcadia velvet gecko, Long-necked northern leaf-tailed gecko, Pinnacles leaf-tailed gecko, Cape Melville leaf-tail gecko and Northern blue-tongued skink.
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