THREATENED FAUNA

Threatened fauna are a small part of overall biodiversity, yet an increase in the endangered status of listed species threatens ecological processes and can point to a wider decline in biodiversity. This provides an indication of the magnitude of decline in overall biodiversity and how it is changing over time.

Since 2000, when the EPBC Act was introduced, the total number of listed threatened fauna species has increased by 37%, rising from 312 in 2000 to 427 in 2009. These increases may reflect taxonomic revisions and improved reporting in conservation status and do not necessarily mean a change in the conservation status of the fauna.

Of the list of threatened fauna species in 2009, just under half (46%) were listed as vulnerable, around two-fifths (41%) were listed as endangered or critically endangered, and just over one in ten (13%) were listed as extinct. The EPBC Act notes that species listed as either Extinct in the wild, Critically endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable are matters of national environmental significance.

Birds and mammals accounted for over half (54%) of the vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered species in 2009, while close to half of the extinct species were mammals (48%) and a further 41% were birds.