Australia quietly adds 49 species to threatened and endangered lists

Brush-tailed bettong, three-toed snake-tooth skink, swift parrot and types of orchid and albatross listed

Elle Hunt

Saturday 7 May 201600.00 BSTLast modified on Monday 9 May 201606.04 BST

Nearly 50 new species of flora and fauna have been added without fanfare to the federal government’s list of threatened species, including nine that are critically endangered.

Among the species to be added to the list under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act were the brush-tailed bettong (endangered), the three-toed snake-tooth skink (vulnerable), the swift parrot (upgraded from endangered to critically endangered), and several types of orchid and albatross.

Australian Conservation Foundation campaigner Jess Abrahams said 49 species were added on Thursday without notice from the federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, or his ministry.

“Normally they’ll put out a press release and talk about all the great work they’re doing to turn this around. This time it just slipped out.”

Hunt’s office and the threatened species commissioner, Gregory Andrews, have both been contacted for comment.

Abrahams noted that no new funding had been put towards the existing threatened species strategy in the budget on Tuesday, meaning programs to bring animals such as the Leadbeater’s possum back from the brink of extinction were unable to be delivered.

Most of the species were threatened due to habitat loss, he said – and commercial activities that contributed to this were ongoing, compounding the problem of inadequate funding.“What hope is there? ... The logging continues, the habitat loss continues – it’s no surprise that the species ends up on the threatened species list.”

The ghost bat, a late addition with a vulnerable status, has now joined two other threatened species on the list: the large-eared horseshoe bat (endangered), and Semon’s leaf-nosed bat (also vulnerable).

All live in the Melody Rocks near Cooktown on Cape York Peninsula, which fall under a mining proposal under consideration by the Queensland state government.

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Forest giraffe joins growing number of threatened species

November 2013: The okapi, also known as the forest giraffe, and the national symbol of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), is now on the brink of extinction the IUCN has declared in its latest red list update. 

The Okapi (Okapia johnstoni) is a close relative of the giraffe and unique to the rainforests of the DRC. It has been listed by the IUCN as Endangered, only one step away from the highest risk of extinction, Critically Endangered, with numbers dwindling across its range. Poaching and habitat loss, as well as the presence of rebels, elephant poachers and illegal miners, are the principal threats to its survival. 

“The Okapi is revered in Congo as a national symbol – it even features on the Congolese franc banknotes,” says Dr Noëlle Kümpel co-chair of the IUCN SSC Giraffe and Okapi Specialist Group and manager of ZSL’s range-wide okapi conservation project. “Sadly, DRC has been caught up in civil conflict and ravaged by poverty for nearly two decades, leading to widespread degradation of Okapi habitat and hunting for its meat and skin. Supporting government efforts to tackle the civil conflict and extreme poverty in the region are critical to securing its survival.” 

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Eye-Catching Parrot Species May Make Endangered Species List

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is a step closer to adding four macaw species to the "endangered" list, the agency announced Friday (July 6).

The birds — the great green macaw, the hyacinth macaw, the scarlet macaw and the military macaw — warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act, a Service analysis has found. The proposal to list the birds as endangered is now open to a 60-day period of public comment.

The macaws' range is in South and Central America, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) lists endangered species regardless of their location. By doing so, the agency can regulate imports, exports and other cross-border activities that might harm the endangered animals.

The proposed listing comes after a request from the advocacy group Friends of Animals, which asked the agency in 2008 to consider listing 14 parrot species. Officials have already ruled on the other 10 species.

The birds in question include the great green macaw (Ara ambiguous), which lives in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. According to the Service, there are likely only 1,000 to 3,000 of these birds left in the wild. Likewise, the brilliant blue-and-green military macaw (Ara militaris) is losing habitat in northern Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Bolivia and Argentina. Officials believe fewer than 10,000 of these birds survive in the wild.

The dark blue hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus), which is the world's largest parrot, now lives only in small regions of Brazil. There are just three populations of hyacinth macaws left in the world, totaling only a few thousand birds. Deforestation could destroy the rest of this bird's habitat by 2030, the USFWS reported.

The agency also proposes listing two subspecies of scarlet macaw (Ara macao) as endangered. These populations are threatened not only by habitat loss, but also by the illegal pet trade.

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