The story of the Kangaroo Island Micro-trapdoor spider offer insight into the challenges ahead for invertebrates – the tiny engines of Australia’s biodiversity – after this year’s cataclysmic fires.
Articles on Endangered animals
Displaying 21 - 40 of 56 articles
I’ve worked in threatened fish conservation and management for more than 35 years, but this species is special to me.
The Kaputar rock skink is thought to have have one of the smallest ranges of any reptile in New South Wales – at the summit of a single extinct volcano, Mount Kaputar.
One vet suggested bushfire smoke had killed the smoky mouse – and asked, in a nod to the species’ name, if this was a case of “death by irony”.
When the post-bushfire rains finally arrived, the situation for many fish species went from dangerous to catastrophic. A slurry of ash and mud washed into waterways, sending oxygen levels plummeting.
A chemical refined from the blue, copper-based blood of horseshoe crabs helps identify contaminants in medical equipment inserted into humans.
Koalas are notoriously difficult to detect. Traditional methods are costly and labour intensive. So we found a more efficient way to locate koalas in eastern NSW, using drones.
At current rates, the rattlesnake population in British Columbia could be severely depleted by 2060.
Pangolins are illegally traded, linked to the coronavirus pandemic and driven to extinction in some areas. That’s why it’s vital to reintroduce this threatened species back into the wild.
How fast can an animal run? How intense was the fire? Picking which species to help after a bushfire tragedy is no easy task.
Fish, frogs, turtles and platypus at major risk of extinction following the bushfires. So why aren’t they getting much attention?
Without an emergency cull of feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park, the land cannot recover from the bushfires – and threatened species are at grave risk of being annihilated.
It’s been a deadly summer for Australia’s wildlife. But beyond the fires, we need to act now to protect bats – which make up a quarter of Australian mammal species – from a silent overseas killer.
In a matter of weeks, the fires have subverted decades of dedicated conservation efforts for many threatened species.
After the woolly mammoth and other megafauna became extinct, surviving animals mingled less. This has big implications for modern conservation.
A green criminologist weighs up the evidence.
We used to think a marsupial mum didn’t know when she was pregnant, but new research shows that’s wrong. And that could help in conservation of endangered species.
It’s quite hard to tell when a sea creature is extinct – there’s always hope it will turn up somewhere.
Meet the brawny bug with a concoction so caustic it’ll make a toad vomit.
Just a handful of federal members of parliament represent hundreds of Australia’s threatened species.
Top contributors
-
Professor of Conservation Biology, Charles Darwin University
-
Professor, Conservation Biology, The University of Queensland
-
Professor of Environmental Management, The University of Queensland
-
Professor of Wildlife Conservation, Australian National University
-
Lecturer in Conservation, The University of Queensland
-
Post-doctoral researcher in Palaeobiology, Flinders University
-
ARC Future Fellow, Queensland University of Technology
-
Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow, The University of Queensland
-
Professor in Terrestrial Ecology, Deakin University
-
Professor in Conservation Science, School of the Environment, The University of Queensland
-
Professor, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University
-
Professor, Michigan Technological University
-
Senior Research Fellow, Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton
-
James Cook University
-
Senior Lecturer (Applied Ecology and Landscape Management), University of New England