Threatened fauna species numbers
You are viewing an archived copy of the 2017 report.
Key finding
The number of fauna species listed as threatened (‘vulnerable’, ‘endangered’ or ‘extinct in the wild’) in Queensland increased by 79 between 2007 and 2017. Notably, three frog species and one mammal, Bramble Cay melomy (Melomys rubicola) have been listed as ‘extinct in the wild’ since 2007.
Threatened species in Queensland are listed under the Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) in the categories ‘vulnerable’, ‘endangered’ and ‘extinct in the wild’. Species at risk of becoming threatened in the near future are listed as ‘near threatened’.
Comparison of species numbers between 2007 and 2017 show:
- total number of fauna species listed as threatened has increased by 79
- the number of threatened species has increased in all fauna groups
- the total number of fauna listed under ‘vulnerable’ increased by 58 species, ‘endangered’ increased by 17 species and ‘extinct in the wild’ increased by 4 species between 2007 and 2017
The number of ‘Endangered’ birds increased from 14 to 25 between 2007 and 2017. Although birds have the highest number of total threatened species, threatened frogs (35 species) and mammals (53 species) represent significant percentages of the total number of species in their taxonomic group at 27% and 21% respectively.
‘Near threatened’ fauna reduced by 79 species between 2011 and 2015. An alignment with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listing categories explains this reduction in classified ‘near threatened’ fauna species.
Despite recovery efforts by state and local governments and many non-government organisations, the threat of extinction is still very real for threatened fauna in Queensland.
More information:
Indicator: Total number of fauna species, and proportion listed as threatened
Count of threatened fauna species' conservation status, comparing between 2007 to 2017. Categorised into fauna groups including: Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Frogs, Fish, Butterflies, Crayfish and Snails. Data current as at December 2017.