The addition of the dozen mammal species confirms Australia’s unenviable position as the world’s capital for mammal extinction, lifting the total number of mammals known to have died out to 34. As Guardian Australia has reported, the last Christmas Island pipistrelle, a species of bat, died in 2009. The Wilderness Society’s Suzanne Milthorpe said there was “not another country, rich or poor, that has anything like this record” in mammal extinction. “No other country has suffered anywhere near that number of mammal species extinctions over the past 200 years,” he said. They said the government had “mobilised” more than $535m for projects to support threatened species and ecological communities since 2014, was preparing a 10-year threatened species strategy and introducing new predator-free safe havens.

Source: The Guardian March 03, 2021 05:15 UTC