Nineteen species have been added to Australia’s critically endangered list, including a wingless stonefly found in about four square kilometres of a Victorian mountain.
In total, 34 species have been added to the country’s threatened species list, edging ever closer to extinction.
They include the lemuroid ringtail possum of northern Queensland, a charismatic marsupial also known as a brushy-tailed ringtail, which lives in tall, moist and mature rainforests in the wet tropics.
Lemuroid ringtail possums, now listed as endangered, are highly vulnerable to climate change, particularly increasing temperatures and drying conditions.
The Australian Conservation Foundation says that as temperatures rise, the animals are being forced to move to higher elevations in the Wet Tropics rainforests.
On the critically endangered list for the first time are the Mount Donna Buang wingless stonefly, a diminutive flightless insect that has a habitat range of four to six kilometres, but could be found in less than one square kilometre.
The ACF says the insect is the only known Australian stonefly that hatches in snow and, as such, is highly vulnerable to a heating climate.
“Australia has so many unusual and amazing species, yet an increasing number are threatened with extinction,” said ACF’s national nature campaigner, Jess Abrahams.
“Creatures like the lemuroid ringtail possum in the rainforests of the Wet Tropics and Victoria’s extraordinary Mount Donna Buang wingless stonefly are highly vulnerable to climate change, while Tasmania’s glossy grass skink has had much of its habitat taken over.”
The skink, which lives in the north-west of Tasmania, has fallen victim to habitat loss from land clearing for logging and agriculture, as well as urban sprawl.
Of the latest additions to the threatened species list, 25 are plants, including several wattle species, and a spider orchid.
“By being added to the threatened species list, all of these creatures are now ‘matters of national environmental significance’ under Australia’s national nature law, which was strengthened by the parliament late last year,” Abrahams said.
The ACF is calling on the federal government to ensure the new rules being developed by Environment Minister Murray Watt under reformed environmental laws are strong enough to protect threatened species and their habitats.
The push comes a month after the government added the Murray River, downstream of the Darling River, and its associated aquatic and floodplain systems to the threatened species list, listing it as critically endangered.
Meanwhile, Watt on Friday rejected a request to update the listing of the endangered Maugean skate to critically endangered, a decision he said was informed by advice from the independent Threatened Species Scientific Committee, the Tasmanian government, researchers and members of the public.
The skate is under increasing pressure from industrial salmon farms in the pristine Macquarie Harbour.
“The Australian government remains steadfast in its commitment to ensure the Maugean skate does not go extinct on our watch,” Watt said in a statement.
“This decision does not change the need to undertake critical actions for the Maugean skate and its home in Macquarie Harbour.”
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Bianca Hall is The Age’s environment and climate reporter, and has worked in a range of roles including as a senior writer, city editor, and in the federal politics bureau in Canberra.Connect via X, Facebook or email.