Dolphins, giant burrowing frogs and turtle named after Steve Irwin join national threatened species list

The Australian Government has added 21 more species to our national list of threatened species, bringing the total to 2,055, not including the 102 species that have been declared extinct.

The new additions include several species that occur around large sections of the Australian coastline, including the Australian snubfin and Australian humpback dolphins and little tern.

Irwin’s turtle in north Queensland, named after Australian conservationist Steve Irwin, and two giant burrowing frogs once found from Newcastle, NSW, to Gippsland, Victoria, are now also declared threatened with extinction.

Six plant species that were already listed moved to higher extinction-risk categories such as Critically Endangered. In South Australia, the Kangaroo Island spider orchid has been moved from Vulnerable to Endangered.

According to the Biodiversity Council, listing species at risk of extinction under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act is an important step in their conservation, as it affords them greater legal protection and visibility and, hopefully, will also attract new action to conserve them.

However, in Australia being added to the national threatened species list does not guarantee that conservation action or even monitoring will occur. Only 110 species, or 5% of nationally threatened species, have been prioritised for attention by the Australian Government.

This is in contrast to the United States, where there are mandatory allocations of conservation funding for every threatened species, and as a result, threatened species recovery programs are far more successful.

Eleven new plants on the list

Biodiversity Council member and Distinguished Professor of Biology Michelle Leishman from Macquarie University said that of the 21 species newly listed as threatened, eleven are plants.

“These cover a range of plant types from tiny orchids (Caladenia ovata, Pterostylis metcalfei) to towering Eucalypts.

“The vast majority of these threatened species occur within NSW, with only one species each from Queensland and South Australia.

“That doesn't mean that there are more threats to species in NSW, it simply reflects the focus of the listing process in the different states and territories.

“Six plant species also had their threat status upgraded and none were downgraded, suggesting that we are not doing enough to reverse biodiversity decline and bring our plant species back from the brink of extinction.

“The most striking aspect of these new additions and upgrades to the list of threatened plant species is the role of climate change and changing fire regimes across the landscape - every one of the 11 plant species listed are restricted to small geographic areas and are highly vulnerable to increased fire frequency and intensity associated with climate change.

“Declining rainfall and feral herbivores were also recognised as important threats to many of the species.”

Listing just the start

Biodiversity Council member and Professor of Wildlife Conservation Euan Ritchie from Deakin University said, “Listing species as threatened is an important step in beginning their path to recovery.

“Of course, what we dearly all want to see is the list of threatened species declining, sharply, showing that conservation success in Australia is accelerating.

“Regrettably, we are still a long way from that, and species moving from vulnerable to endangered or critically endangered means they’re now ever closer to extinction.

“Unless long-promised environmental law reform and far greater investment in conservation are delivered as a matter of urgency, we’ll continue to see the destruction of Australia’s unique and precious species and ecosystems, and the Australian government’s nature positive agenda will be impossible to achieve.”

According to Biodiversity Council Director James Trezise we need a major increase in government investment in conservation programs to prevent extinctions and recover species.

“It's estimated we need to invest $2 billion per year in threatened species recovery to prevent the loss of Australian wildlife, but we do not see anywhere near that level of investment from the federal government.

“Australia is a global biodiversity hotspot, with plants and animals that occur nowhere else on the planet, so it's critical that we safeguard our vanishing wildlife and invest in their recovery before they are gone for good.”

Fish just added to the threatened species list

Three fish were added to the threatened species list in March, bringing the total to 87. The additions include the Murray crayfish, which once occurred across 12,500km of waterways in the southern Murray Darling Basin.

Threatened fish and crayfish expert Dr Nick Whiterod at the Goyder Institute for Water Research Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth (CLLMM) Research Centre said that the Murray Crayfish is the second-largest freshwater crayfish in the world and an iconic species in the southern Murray-Darling Basin.

“The decline of the Murray crayfish has been driven by a range of threats, some like commercial harvesting have ceased, but recreational harvesting, river regulation, poor water quality and bushfires continue to take a toll.

“It is critical to ensure water management across the southern Murray-Darling Basin maintains the flowing, oxygenated habitat the species needs, recreational harvest is sustainability managed and there are plans in place to minimise and recover from catastrophic disturbances like bushfires.”

“The western Victorian blackfish is a distinctive looking fish found across part of coastal south-western Victoria. It is mostly threatened by changes to flow and habitat, the impacts of bushfires and invasive fish.

“For the recovery of this blackfish, it is crucial to address these threats by effectively managing water flow and extraction levels, protecting habitats, implementing fire management strategies to aid the species’ survival during bushfires, and exploring methods to eliminate and prevent the spread of invasive fish. “

The western dwarf galaxias is found across southwestern Western Australia. Climate change is affecting this small fish by diminishing stream flows in the region, and these effects are worsened by surface and groundwater extraction by humans, as well as bushfires and invasive fish species.

“To save the western dwarf galaxias, we need to manage water appropriately to ensure that the necessary water reaches critical habitats, mitigate the impacts of invasive fish species through harvesting and community education, and prepare and implement bushfire response plans for known populations.”

The Biodiversity Council is an independent expert group founded by 11 Australian universities to promote evidence-based solutions to Australia’s biodiversity crisis.