Jaana Dielenberg, National Environmental Science Program, University of Queensland

The Threatened Species Recovery Hub of the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program is a $60 million investment in science to support the recovery of Australia’s threatened species and ecological communities. A key focus has been strong collaborations with on-ground partners to ensure research is practical, addresses current needs and will be applied. Nationally, the Hub has over 100 projects and 200 project partners. Now that we are four years into the six year program we take a look at some of the Hub’s achievements to date.

The task of recovering Australia’s threatened species and ecological communities is immense and can often be overwhelming. It is important to celebrate and learn from our successes. In response, the Threatened Species Recovery Hub published a book: Recovering Australian Threatened Species: A Book of Hope, which is a compilation of insights from 109 threatened species scientists and conservation managers from across the country on 28 conservation success case studies. The case studies were also analysed to identify common themes that led to success.

Other Hub research found that 10 Australian birds and seven mammals are likely to become extinct over the next 20 years if there is no increase in conservation effort and/or effectiveness. In addition we identified the top 20 Australian mammals and 20 birds at greatest risk of extinction. The publication and awareness raising about this list in mid-2018 led to new survey and recovery efforts for many of the species on the list, thereby reducing their extinction probabilities. The hub has also identified the top 100 Australian plants at risk of extinction, and worked to raise awareness of the 21 groups of plants at greatest risk based on key threats, regions or plant types. Research to identify Australia’s most imperilled freshwater fish, frogs and butterflies is currently underway.

Australia’s cat- and fox-free haven network has been another important research area. Firstly, we identified the Australian mammal species that are highly, or extremely, susceptible to predation by cats and foxes; these species are unable to persist in the landscape without the protection of a feral-predator-free haven. Excluding already extinct species, 52 species and 15 additional sub-species were identified as needing representation within the haven network.

Secondly, in 2018 we undertook a stocktake of every Australian haven and the species within them: Australia has 101 island havens covering 2152 km2 and 17 fenced havens covering 346 km². Collectively they protect 188 populations of 32 feral predator-susceptible threatened mammal species and an additional six sub-species. However, 20 species and an additional 9 sub-species (43% of susceptible taxa) are not yet protected within any havens. Additionally the 17 most recently-created havens have not added any new species or sub-species to the network. This highlights a need for more support for strategic national co-ordination.

Projects within the Threatened Species Recovery Hub focus on supporting the recovery of Australia’s threatened species and ecological communities, such as the reintroduction of quolls to Booderee National Park. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The final stage of the project undertook a systematic planning analysis to identify priority sub-regions for new havens. With just 12 new strategically located havens all 67 predator-susceptible mammal taxa could be protected in at least one haven. With 38 new strategically-located havens we could protect at least three populations of all 67 predator-susceptible species.

Additionally, thirteen-hundred Australian plant species are listed as threatened. Translocation is an important tool in the fight against plant extinctions, but with the wide range of plants and contexts in Australia, knowing when and how to do translocations, and how to measure their success, can be complicated. The Hub supported the Australian Network for Plant Conservation to revise and expand the 2004 edition of the Guidelines for the Translocation of Threatened Plants in Australia. The new guidelines have had input from plant translocation experts from across the country, and are the definitive guide for plant translocation projects in Australia. In related work, we are also supporting the West Australian Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions’ research on threatened plant translocations and the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria orchid breeding research.

Here is a snapshot of some of our other highlights:

• Monitoring reintroduction’s undertaken by Parks Australia in order to provide insights and support Parks Australia to identify and address threats as they emerge. This has included bandicoots and quolls reintroduced to Booderee National Park; Extinct-in-the wild blue-tailed skinks introduced to semi-wild enclosures on Christmas Island; and the recent introduction of blue-tailed skinks and Lister’s geckoes to Pulu Blan Island in the Cocos Keeling archipelago.
• Developing a new method to identify plant species likely to have become threatened based on habitat associations, habitat mapping and museum records, and applied this to brigalow forest which identified several new at-risk species. We also helped develop new survey protocols and a database compiling existing knowledge on myrtle rust to support national response efforts.
• Working with Parks Australia and Victoria’s Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning to develop a fox population simulation model which is already being used to assess the effectiveness of baiting programs in Victoria and to identify the most cost-effective spatial and temporal deployment of fox baits for new programs.
• Delivering long-term monitoring data for the kowari to support up-listing to Endangered. This work has also directly led to a new research and management collaboration to translocate kowari into Arid Recovery’s fenced reserves.
• And finally, we identified the most effective methods for monitoring the elusive Endangered Kangaroo Island dunnart, and supported cat eradication programs run by agencies working on the island by undertaking a non-toxic Eradicat baiting trial in western Kangaroo Island. It found that species other than cats took 99% of baits, indicating that Eradicat baits were not suitable for this area, where native wildlife have low resistance to 1080.

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Read the rest of the September 2019 ESA Bulletin.