Threatened Species

In the decade between assessments, six species in our region have gone from a less secure to a more secure status. These are the good news outcomes, although that change is mainly about better data allowing better assessment. Twelve species retain the threat status of the previous assessment, which while disappointing at least does not imply a declining situation. But most worrying is the fact that forty species have gone from a more secure situation to a less secure one in the past decade.

Fourteen of these species are wet tropics taxa threatened by climate change and we now know about their situation thanks to the long-running surveys of Steve Williams (and others). The quality of those data enable much confidence in the results and should be an immediate wake-up call to the Australian Government about the urgency of a much stronger response on climate change. Some of the species of concern are international waders, where the principal threats often include climate change in their northern hemisphere breeding grounds. But for some of those species disturbance on their Australian feeding grounds, from humans and unrestrained dogs, is a serious issue and we can take local action. 

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Little thorough survey work is being done and the Williams work has ceased; there are many species for which we do not know the status, and others for whom we may have got it wrong. But enough indicators do raise serious concerns for our birds. Some species might be absent because this work only concerns IUCN Conservation Status. For example, Macleay’s Fig Parrot (our local Wet Tropics subspecies) has not been listed by IUCN but is listed as Vulnerable under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act, although in this case I believe it is simply an administrative error within the Department. For some of these species the work of BirdLife Northern Queensland has been a significant contributor to knowledge about them.