Kangaroo Island animals targeted for new threatened species listings following devastating inferno
Kangaroo Island’s devastating bushfires could see many animals move closer to extinction on Australia’s threatened species list. See which are most at risk.
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Kangaroo Island’s devastating bushfires could see many animals move closer to extinction on Australia’s threatened species list.
A Federal Government committee is assessing dozens of Australian species which could be listed for the first time, or to moved to a higher conservation status, including 18 that live in South Australia.
Of those, 12 are endemic to Kangaroo Island.
Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife’s Pat Hodgens said the bushfires were a catalyst for some of the proposed listings, after huge swathes of habitat were destroyed on the island’s western end.
“You go into some of the areas where the fire burned really hot and extensively and there’s just a few birds or one or two species whereas previously it would have been a very diverse area,” he said.
“It will be years until they get back to the way they were before the fire.”
Bushfires ripped through almost half of the island in December 2019 and January 2020.
Mr Hodgens is among leaders of an effort to save the Kangaroo Island dunnart – a small marsupial that lost the majority of its habitat during the inferno. The endangered animal is now being assessed for a potential listing as critically endangered.
A higher listing might help garner funds for projects such as setting up an “insurance population” of dunnarts outside their fenced refuge at Western River.
Spider expert Jess Marsh nominated Kangaroo Island’s assassin and micro-trapdoor spiders to be listed for the first time, as endangered.
They’d also be the first invertebrates recognised for South Australia under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
A listing would mean the spiders receive protection from prescribed burns, and would also garner greater awareness of the species’ plight – and potentially funding for research.
Both species lost habitat during the fires, but the assassin spider hasn't been seen since.
“The Kangaroo Island assassin spider was only known from one area in the Western River Wilderness Protection Area, that burned at very high severity,” Dr Marsh said.
“It’s hanging in the balance whether that species is now actually extinct or not.”
She said invertebrates were extra-susceptible to fire because of their small ranges and specific habitat – but they often missed out on the attention other species received, in favour of “cute and cuddly” animals.
The island’s glossy black-cockatoo population is listed as endangered, but has been proposed to be assessed as critically endangered.
Karleah Berris, who works as glossy black-cockatoo project officer for the Kangaroo Island Landscape Board, said at the last count, there were 454 birds on the island.
That’s a vast improvement from the 158 in 1995, when a project was launched to help the species recover.
The birds have fared well since the blaze, but their next challenge will be persisting in larger numbers despite the loss of much of their habitat.
“We’re in a situation now where we’ve got half the food but a bigger population than we’ve ever had in the program’s history,” Ms Berris said.
The species’ rescue effort has included planting thousands of she-oak trees, installing nest boxes and deterring brushtail possums from eating the birds’ eggs and nestlings.
Another 6500 she-oaks are due to be planted in June and July.
That’s around the same time that the Landscape Board will have a better idea of how many chicks have successfully fledged this year.
Furniture and mattress manufacturer Koala has donated more than $1.5m to the WWF for the conservation and preservation of wildlife, including the glossy black-cockatoo project, since 2017.
A Federal Government spokesman said its Threatened Species Scientific Committee would provide advice to Environment Minister Sussan Ley on the listings.
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