Provisional list of animals requiring urgent management intervention

The 2019-20 bushfires in southern and eastern Australia have had severe impacts on many animal species. The fires have covered an unusually large area and, in many places, they have burnt with unusually high intensity. Some species were considered threatened before the fires, and the fires have now likely increased their risk of extinction. Many other fire-affected animal species were considered secure and not threatened before the fires, but have now lost much of their habitat and may be imperiled.

To support protection and recovery of these species, conservation action will be needed for many species, at many sites. Such informed management will need to be supported by a wide range of government agencies, non-government conservation organisations, university researchers, community groups and the public.

However, some species are in need of more urgent help than others. The following 113 animal species have been identified by experts as the highest priorities for urgent management intervention in the coming weeks and months. Most of these animals have had at least 30% of their range burnt, and many have had substantially more.

The priority animals were identified based on the extent to which their range has potentially been burnt, how imperiled they were before the fires (for example, whether they were already listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered), and the physical, behavioural and ecological traits which influence their vulnerability to fire. The framework and methods used to determine the priority species is described in the report available on the Department’s website.

The analysis includes animals in bioregions that have been impacted by fires from south-west Western Australia, southern South Australia, Victoria, southern and eastern New South Wales, south-eastern Queensland and Tasmania. A map of this area is available on the Department’s website. This preliminary analysis area may be revised in future versions.

This analysis builds on the initial spatial analysis of species listed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 released by the Department of Environment and Energy on 20 Jan 2020 (http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/bushfire-recovery/research-and-resources). In addition to listed threatened and migratory species protected under the EPBC Act, this new analysis also includes other mammal, bird, reptile, frog and spiny crayfish species which are not currently listed as threatened under the EPBC Act or by the IUCN but mostly have more than 30% of their range within the burnt areas. The new analysis also incorporates the potential vulnerability of each species to fire, as well as the fire overlap information. We have not yet done this type of analysis for most invertebrates that are not currently listed as threatened under the EPBC Act.

WHAT IS IN THE LIST?

The provisional list includes 13 bird, 19 mammal, 20 reptile, 17 frog, 5 invertebrate, 22 spiny crayfish and 17 freshwater fish species.

Some of these species, like the Kangaroo Island Dunnart, Pugh’s Frog and the Blue Mountains Water Skink, are at imminent risk of extinction because most of their range has been burnt, they were already highly threatened, and they are susceptible to fire and its after effects.

Other species have a substantial portion of their range potentially affected by fires and require emergency intervention and strategic response to support their recovery. These include species like the Smoky Mouse, Koala and Giant Burrowing Frog.

Some species of freshwater fish have been included because they occur downstream of burnt areas, and will probably experience large mortality events if heavy rain washes large volumes of ash and sediment down waterways.  

The priority list includes animals that are not well known, like the Banksia brownii Plant Louse and the Golden-tipped Bat. Some of these animals play important roles in our native ecosystems and their recovery from the fires is important to ecosystem function.

Several listed threatened species that were not included in the analysis published on 20 January have now been identified as priorities, because the more recent data and analysis has shown a greater potential impact on these species.

WHAT IS IN THE TABLE BELOW?

The table groups species by type (birds, mammals, etc) and includes the following columns:

Common Name is the plain language name(s) used for the species.

Scientific Name is the formal name for the species accepted by the Australian Faunal Directory. In some cases, the species is in the process of being formally described.

EPBC Act listed status is the category within the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 threatened species list that the species is listed in. Categories reflect the risk of extinction, with Critically Endangered species being at greatest risk, then Endangered and Vulnerable species. Criteria for listing in each of these categories are set out in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Regulations 2000 and follow the global IUCN Red List categories and criteria. One species, the Black-faced Monarch, is listed as Migratory under the EPBC Act because it moves outside of Australia and is subject to international migratory species conservation agreements.

States and territories are the states and territories that the species may occur in. The fires may not have affected each species in all states and territories where it occurs.