Register      Login
Australian Mammalogy Australian Mammalogy Society
Journal of the Australian Mammal Society
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

Australian terrestrial mammals: how many modern extinctions?

Andrew A. Burbidge A *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Floreat, WA, Australia.

* Correspondence to: amburbidge@westnet.com.au

Handling Editor: Mark Eldridge

Australian Mammalogy 46, AM23037 https://doi.org/10.1071/AM23037
Submitted: 19 July 2023  Accepted: 22 August 2023  Published: 6 September 2023

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the Australian Mammal Society. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

This note updates the list of extinct Australian terrestrial mammal species and subspecies and, from published scientific literature, reports 40 species and six subspecies that are presumed to have become extinct since European settlement of Australia.

Keywords: Australia, biodiversity, extinct, modern extinction, species, subspecies, subfossil, terrestrial mammals, up-to-date extinctions list.

References

AMTC (2022). The AMTC Australian Mammal Species List. Version 2.0. Available at https://australianmammals.org.au/publications/amtc-species-list [accessed 14 July 2023].

Burbidge, A. A. (2018). Did Zaglossus bruijnii occur in the Kimberley region of Western Australia?. Australian Mammalogy 40, 315-318.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Burbidge, A. A., and McKenzie, N. L. (1989). Patterns in the modern decline of Western Australia’s vertebrate fauna: causes and conservation implications. Biological Conservation 50, 143-198.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Burbidge, A. A., Johnson, K. A., Fuller, P.J., and Southgate, R.I. (1988). Aboriginal knowledge of the mammals of the central deserts of Australia. Australian Wildlife Research 15, 9-39.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Burbidge, A. A., McKenzie, N. L., Brennan, K. E. C., Woinarski, J. C. Z., Dickman, C. R., Baynes, A., Gordon, G., Menkhorst, P. W., and Robinson, A. C. (2008). Conservation status and biogeography of Australia’s terrestrial mammals. Australian Journal of Zoology 56, 411-422.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Burbidge, A. A., Woinarski, J. C. Z., and Harrison, P. L. (2023). Conservation of Australian mammals. In ‘Strahan’s mammals of Australia’, 4th edn. (Eds A. M. Baker, I. C. Gynther.) pp. 35–37. (Reed New Holland: NSW, Australia.)

Calaby, J. H. (1960). Observations on the banded ant-eater Myrmecobius f. fasciatus Waterhouse (Marsupialia), with particular reference to its food habits. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 135, 183-207.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

DCCEEW (2021). Australia’s bioregions (IBRA). (Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water: Canberra.) Available at https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/land/nrs/science/ibra [accessed 14 July 2023].

DCCEEW (2023). Species Profile and Threats Database; EPBC Act List of Threatened Fauna. (Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.)

Fernandes, K., Bateman, P. W., Saunders, B. J., Bunce, M., Bohmann, K., and Nevill, P. (2023). Use of carrion fly iDNA metabarcoding to monitor invasive and native mammals. Conservation Biology e14098.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

Finlayson, H. H. (1934). A new species of Lagorchestes (Marsupialia). Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 67, 319-321.
| Google Scholar |

Friend, J. A., Fuller, P. J., and Davis, J. A. (1982). The numbat in central Australia. SWANS 12, 21-26.
| Google Scholar |

Haouchar, D., Pacioni, C., Haile, J., McDowell, M. C., Baynes, A., Phillips, M. J., Austin, J. J., Pope, L. C., and Bunce, M. (2016). Ancient DNA reveals complexity in the evolutionary history and taxonomy of the endangered Australian brush-tailed bettongs (Bettongia: Marsupialia: Macropodidae: Potoroinae). Biodiversity and Conservation 25, 2907-2927.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Helgen, K. M., Miguez, R. P., Kohen, J. L., and Helgen, L. E. (2012). Twentieth century occurrence of the Long-Beaked Echidna Zaglossus bruijnii in the Kimberley region of Australia. ZooKeys 255, 103-132.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

McDowell, M. C., Haouchar, D., Aplin, K. P., Bunce, M., Baynes, A., and Prideaux, G. J. (2015). Morphological and molecular evidence supports specific recognition of the recently extinct Bettongia anhydra (Marsupialia: Macropodidae). Journal of Mammalogy 96, 287-296.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

McKenzie, N. L., Burbidge, A. A., Baynes, A., Brereton, R. N., Dickman, C. R., Gordon, G., Gibson, L. A., Menkhorst, P. W., Robinson, A. C., Williams, M. R., and Woinarski, J. C. Z. (2007). Analysis of factors implicated in the recent decline of Australia’s mammal fauna. Journal of Biogeography 34, 597-611.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

McKenzie, N. L., Burbidge, A. A., Baynes, A., Gibson, L. A., Travouillon, K. J., Bullen, R. D., and Turpin, J. M. (2023). 2022 update shows Western Australia’s mammals continue to decline. Australian Mammalogy
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Newman-Martin, J. (2020). An interpretation of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene small mammal deposits of Horseshoe Cave, Australia. Honours thesis, Curtin University, Bentley, WA.

Start, A. N., Burbidge, A. A., McDowell, M. C., and McKenzie, N. L. (2012). The status of non-volant mammals along a rainfall gradient in the south-west Kimberley, Western Australia. Australian Mammalogy 34, 36-48.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Travouillon, K. J., Simões, B. F., Miguez, R. P., Brace, S., Brewer, P., Stemmer, D., Price, G. J., Cramb, J., and Louys, J. (2019). Hidden in plain sight: reassessment of the pig-footed bandicoot, Chaeropus ecaudatus (Peramelemorphia, Chaeropodidae), with a description of a new species from central Australia, and use of the fossil record to trace its past distribution. Zootaxa 4566, 1-69.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

Vakil, V., Cramb, J., Price, G. J., Webb, G. E., and Louys, J. (2023). Conservation implications of a new fossil species of hopping-mouse, Notomys magnus sp. nov. (Rodentia: Muridae), from the Broken River Region, north-eastern Queensland. Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Watts, C. H. S. and Aslin, H. J. (1981). ‘The rodents of Australia.’ (Angus & Robertson Publishers: Sydney.)

Woinarski, J., Tiernan, B., and Legge, S. (in press). Should the Christmas Island shrew Crocidura trichura be considered extinct? Australian Mammalogy
| Google Scholar |

Woinarski, J. C. Z., Burbidge, A. A., and Harrison, P. L. (2014). ‘The action plan for Australian mammals 2012.’ (CSIRO Publishing: Collingwood.)

Woinarski, J.C., Burbidge, A. A., and Harrison, P. L. (2015). Ongoing unraveling of a continental fauna: decline and extinction of Australian mammals since European settlement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 112, 4531-4540.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

Woinarski, J. C. Z., Braby, M. F., Burbidge, A. A., Coates, D., Garnett, S. T., Fensham, R. J., Legge, S. M., McKenzie, N. L., Silcock, J. L., and Murphy, B. P. (2019). Reading the black book: The number, timing, distribution and causes of listed extinctions in Australia. Biological Conservation 239, 108261.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Wood Jones, F. (1923). ‘The mammals of South Australia. Part I. The Ornithodelphia and the Didactylous Didelphia.’ (Government Printer: Adelaide.)