Australia’s extraordinary and vulnerable animals – in pictures

A long-nosed potoroo
(Potorous tridactylus) eating fungi. The way they use their long, slightly curved claws to dig up food helps to spread fungal spores that are beneficial to the health of trees and shrubs throughout the ecosystem. Photographed at the Conservation Ecology Centre in Victoria. Current conservation status: Near threatened. Threats/impacts include: Habitat destruction through clearing (eg logging and urban sprawl), bushfires and drought lead to a reduction in food sources. Competition with invasive non-native species, diseases and predation by introduced dogs, foxes and cats.

A Boyd’s forest dragon
(Hypsilurus boydii). Current conservation status: Least concern. Threats/impacts include: Climate change and habitat destruction and a reduction of quality of habitat available.

Little blue penguins
(Eudyptula minor), the world’s smallest penguin species, standing on the rocks of St Kilda breakwater, Melbourne. Every night after sunset, the adults will come home to their burrows. Current conservation status: Least concern. Threats/impacts include: They are threatened by entanglement in plastic and pollution flowing into Port Phillip Bay. In recent times the drought has resulted in less nutrients flowing in from the Yarra River, causing a reduction in local fish stocks.

A female greater glider
(Petauroides volans) on a branch. Named Grevillea, she was found as baby when trees were cut down in Condamine, Queensland as part of a mining operation. As she has been hand raised she is unable to be released. Current conservation status: Vulnerable. Threats/impacts include: Habitat destruction and in turn fragmentation of populations means their ability to recolonise suitable habitat is reduced along with genetic resilience. Higher temperatures can cause heat stress events and death.

A platypus on Lake Elizabeth, Victoria. Current conservation status: Near threatened. Threats/impacts include: Habitat destruction as a result of drought, residential and commercial water withdrawal and the creation of dams. Drowning from entanglement in fishing traps and plastic pollution and flash floods. Bushfire impacts can mean streams simply evaporate. Rains can flush loose ash and sediment into the river, resulting in low dissolved oxygen levels. Removal of riverbank vegetation can destroy burrows, increase vulnerability to predators and cause an increase in water temperatures.

A male dingo
(Canis lupus dingo) called Snapple waits to have breakfast before sunrise at the Dingo Discovery Sanctuary and Research Centre in Victoria. This centre aims to preserve and conserve the original gene pool of the Australian dingo, educate the public on its beneficial role in wild ecosystems, instil the fact that the dingo is a true species, and eventually reintroduce it to approved safe habitats. Conservation status: Vulnerable. Threats/impacts include: Habitat destruction. Human persecution (eg hunting and poisoning). Inbreeding with domestic dogs.

An Australian wedge-tailed eagle
(Aquila audax). Conservation status: Least concern. Threats/impacts include: Habitat destruction (ie loss of nesting habitat) and disturbance of nesting birds. Persecution by humans (ie conflict with livestock owners and other members of the public). Also non-target poisoning (eg ingestion of poisoned rabbits etc). Road mortality.

A tiger quoll
(Dasyurus maculatus). Primarily nocturnal, the tiger quoll is the largest remaining carnivorous marsupial on the Australian mainland. Conservation status: Near threatened. Threats/impacts include: Habitat destruction and fragmentation. Competition with foxes and feral cats. Non-target mortality from trapping and poisoning. Direct persecution is significant as they are attracted to caged birds and do not necessarily take flight when discovered. Direct and indirect impacts of bushfires. There are concerns about the remaining quolls in Victoria after the recent fires.

A rescued and orphaned grey-headed flying fox
(Pteropus poliocephalus) in captivity feeds on the pollen of a flowering native eucalyptus tree. Current conservation status: Vulnerable with numbers decreasing. Threats/impacts include: Extended habitat destruction and degradation of foraging and roosting overextended areas (from drought, bushfires and human-driven habitat destruction). Conflict with people, including deliberate camp disturbance. Increasingly common heat stress events causing death. Entanglement in fruit tree netting and barbed wire.

A grey-headed flying fox colony photographed in December 2019 during an extreme heat stress event. The temperature exceeded 43C and in a desperate search for somewhere cooler and less exposed, the flying foxes descended from the safety of the tree canopy. Ironically and sadly, this behaviour resulted in what experts call ‘clumping’ – where the number of bats in close proximity means the animals get even hotter. It is often a precursor to mass deaths. More than 4,500 grey-headed flying foxes died at the Melbourne Yarra Bend colony, 56% being infants.

On hot days when resting in trees, flying foxes will spread their highly vascular wings, allowing more air to flow over them, which helps them cool down.

A grey-headed flying fox carries her pup, attached to a teat, while heading for shelter in the colony as rain starts to fall, Yarra Bend Park, Kew, Victoria.

A sugar glider
(Petaurus breviceps). Conservation status: Least concern. Threats/impacts include: Habitat destruction via land clearance mainly for agriculture. Direct and indirect impacts from bushfires. Predation by foxes and particularly cats. Possibly climate change via decreased food (fewer insects, flowers, lerps etc).

An Australasian gannet
(Morus serrator) near Cape Kidnappers Gannet Reserve, New Zealand. Current conservation status: Least concern. Threats/impacts include: Fishing and harvesting aquatic resources. Ingestion of plastics.

A western swamp tortoise
(Pseudemydura umbrina) at Adelaide Zoo, which has a satellite breeding population as part of a Perth Zoo conservation project for this critically endangered species. Current conservation status: Critically endangered – the most endangered Australian reptile. Threats/impacts include:Habitat destruction from land clearing, pesticides and fertilisers. Climate change also poses a potential threat. Perth has recently experienced drier winters and if swamps dry too early, females may not produce eggs. Feral predators such as cats, rats and foxes also eat tortoises and eggs.