Tiwi

• Our new research answers these questions for Australian birds.
• One of the goals of conservation is to reduce the risk of a species becoming extinct.
• Nine of these would have gone extinct if not for hard work and expertise to prevent it happening.

What were the successes?

• This success also changed the average characteristics of Australian threatened birds.
• Before the pest eradications on Macquarie Island, large seabirds dominated the profile of the threatened Australian birds.
• The likely huge benefits from eradicating rodents from Lord Howe Island, for example, are yet to show up in these figures.
• One of the largest national parks in New South Wales was acquired for the Bulloo grey grasswren (Amytornis barbatus barbatus).
• Very few glossy black-cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus lathami halmaturinus) on Kangaroo Island were nesting successfully before their nests were protected from predatory possums.

Read more:
We identified the 63 animals most likely to go extinct by 2041. We can't give up on them yet

There have also been setbacks

• In the past decade, Gould’s petrel and the bristlebird have suffered setbacks due to new or escalating threats.
• A new report suggests Tasmanian wind farms are killing and injuring significant numbers of eagles – and many more windfarms are planned.
• Our analysis of improvements in the conservation outlook for Australian birds was complemented with an assessment of Australian bird extinctions.

29 birds are gone, but we can halt the losses

• At present, 29 Australian birds are known to have become extinct.
• After years of searching, this century-old bird mystery has yet to be solved

  For the 29 extinct birds, we can do nothing.

• The important lesson is that this number of losses need grow no more.
• However, the examples of birds whose risk of extinction has declined show what can be achieved.

• Sarah Legge receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
• She is a member of the Biodiversity Council; the Conservation and Science Committee for the Invasive Species Council; and the Threatened Species Committee for Birds Australia.