Endangered species enter ‘palliative care’

Record numbers of Australian species are entering “palliative care” following a 50% increase in critically endangered animals – the last step before extinction in the wild – in the two-years since the Albanese Government launched its Nature Positive Plan.

Rolling the die

People have been predicting the end of the world since the dawn of recorded history, and they’ve all been wrong, so is Tony Ord’s estimation that humanity has a one in six chance of extinction this century anything more than a rhetorical device or alarmist book promoting gimmick?

Extinction is forever

In the lead-up to World Biodiversity Day on 22 May, the Invasive Species Council has reviewed recent research showing Australia has been averaging at least 4.5 probable extinctions every decade since the 1960s, which is more than previously thought.

7 strategies to save threatened species

The head of the United Nations has called humanity ‘a weapon of mass extinction’ – here are 7 ways to help stop our activities wiping out more species in the future.

The sixth mass extinction

The Earth has suffered several mass extinction events in the past, not least the asteroid impact which killed off the dinosaurs, but the sixth mass extinction event is happening right now at the hands of mankind.

Thunderbirds aren’t go

Bones from the extinct ‘thunder bird’, excavated in the northern reaches of the Flinders Ranges and near Alice Springs, suggest their slow breeding patterns failed to keep pace with the environmental changes around them.

Bringing species back from the brink

Mankind has driven many species into extinction since the end of the last ice age, but controlling invasive species and protecting habitat can help support efforts to save those teetering on the brink.

Of human blindness

Innumerable species have been driven to extinction by the spread of mankind over the planet, but such is our rapacious and thoughtless exploitation of the world’s resources that humanity itself is putting itself at risk.

Back from the dead

Museum genomics reveal a mouse thought to have been extinct for over 160 years has been living under a different name this whole time.

Facing up to the global extinction crisis

We are witnessing the loss of biodiversity at rates never before seen in human history. Nearly a million species face extinction if we do not fundamentally change our relationship with the natural world, according to the world’s largest assessment of biodiversity.

Did climate change wipe out the Australian lion?

Scientists now believe Thylacoleo carnifex was probably a victim of the drying out of Australia, which began about 350,000 years ago, rather than from the impact of humans.

3D scanning reveals secrets of extinct starfish

Advanced digital imaging has ‘virtually dissected’ the Derwent River Seastar, confirming it as a new but extinct species without damaging the precious remaining specimens.