Koalas are under threat from a range of factors, from urban expansion to climate change. Unfortunately there is no quick fix, and it may be that not all populations can be saved.
The Bramble Cay Melomys is arguably the first mammal driven extinct by climate change, rather than direct human interaction.
Ian Bell/EHP/State of Queensland
Australia’s conservation laws presume that we can preserve everything in its natural state. But in a changing world, we’ll have to be more flexible than that.
Dead river red gums line a dry creek west of Mildura.
Gillis Horner
Australia may have reputation for vast areas of wilderness, but in reality the continent’s ecosystems have been chopped and diced. Now we need to protect what’s left.
It’s high time we gave Australian wildlife a helping hand.
AAP Image/Sam Mooy
A 21st century government would put the environment on at least an equal footing with the economy. That means no more extinctions, and no more putting ourselves before wildlife or future generations.
This furry critter could help save plenty of others, if given the chance.
Chen Wu/Flickr/Wikimedia Commons
If we brought devils back to the mainland, they could play a similar role to dingoes - keeping foxes and cats under control and potentially boosting the conservation prospects of Australia’s small mammals.
There’s nothing feral about this Australian wildcat.
Photograph by Angus Emmott
There’s been a lot of talk about killing feral cats, with the government’s recently announced war on cats, with a goal to kill two million by 2020. But let’s embrace cats as part of Australia’s environment.
Feral cats are thought to be responsible for the decline of many Australian species.
Melissa Jensen
Feral cats are highly adaptable and highly variable, hence we must continue to search for their Achilles Heel and invest in a wide range of control methods.
The critically endangered Leadbeater’s Possums is just one of Australia’s animals threatened by habitat loss.
Greens MPs/Flickr
Three recent reports make clear that we should be saving habitat in order to save species. It is pretty simple. Destroy a species’ habitat and you destroy its home.
There are fewer than 50 Orange-bellied Parrots left in the wild.
AAP Image/Birds Australia
After falling victim to disease, there seems to be little hope left for Australia’s most endangered parrot.
The Mountain Pygmy Possum, which is the only Australian mammal confined to the alpine zone of Australian Alps. is extremely vulnerable to climate change.
Matthew Pauza
A large new national park might sound like the best way to protect the critically endangered Leadbeater’s possum. But it won’t do anything to save possums from the major threat of bushfire.
Leadbeater’s Possum is dependent on large, old trees that produce hollows for its survival.
David Lindemayer
The Leadbeater’s has been formally listed as critically endangered. But unless clearfelling in the possums’ stronghold stops, it will continue down the road of extinction.
Swift parrots migrate to Tasmania and breed in the richest patches of flowering trees.
Lizardstomp
Feral cats are estimated to eat tens of millions of native animals each night in Australia. But what kinds of wildlife are they eating? In research published today in the Journal of Biogeography, my colleagues…
The Bramble Cay melomys - the latest in a long line of extinct Australian mammals.
Queensland Government
Last July, the federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, announced the appointment of Gregory Andrews as Australia’s first Threatened Species Commissioner. His mission: to help avert the extinction of a…
Island getaway: Tasmanian Devils have been moved to offshore islands to save them from a devastating disease.
AAP Image/David Beniuk
Australia is in the grip of an extinction crisis. Our unique animals, plants, and ecosystems are rapidly ebbing away in a process that began more than 200 years ago with European settlement. Feral cats…