One of Australia’s rarest butterflies, the Bathurst Copper Butterfly, also known as the Purple Copper Butterfly and the Bathurst Copper ...
The Davies’ Tree Frog is a medium-sized frog, with females growing to 6.5 centimetres in length and males to around 5.3 centimetres ...
The Kangaroo Island Dunnart is small, nocturnal marsupial and the island’s only endemic mammal. It was classified as critically endangered by the IUCN in 2008 ...
A medium-sized semi-aquatic lizard, the adult Blue Mountains Water Skink is around 20 centimetres in total length, with its tail being around 12 centimetres ...
The Koala is one of Australia’s most distinctive and loved native animals ...
One of Australia’s rarest butterflies, the Bathurst Copper Butterfly (Paralucia spinifera), also known as the Purple Copper Butterfly and the Bathurst Copper, is endemic to the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, found in around 30 locations between Bathurst and Hartley, in an area comprising less than 30 hectares. This species occurs mainly in eucalypt woodlands above 900 metres. This small butterfly has a thick body and a wingspan of 20–30 millimetres. The upper side of its wings are copper to black with a purple, green or bronze iridescence, and underneath it has a subtle brown, black and grey patterning. Its flight is weak and erratic, always in close proximity to foliage, which restricts the butterfly's range.
The Bathurst Copper Butterfly has a mutually beneficial relationship with an attendant ant species (Anonychomyrma itinerans) that occupies the same host plant, a blackthorn, on which the butterfly exclusively feeds. The female lays her eggs on or near the ants’ nests, and when they hatch the ants marshal the larvae into their nests during the day, where they are protected, and onto the blackthorn to feed in the evening. In return, the ants enjoy the sweet dew produced by a gland on the backs of larvae. The larvae later pupate in the ants’ nests.
The Bathurst Copper Butterfly is listed as vulnerable in the national EPBC Act and endangered in the state’s Threatened Species Conservation Act. First described in 1978, this butterfly is at risk due to its limited distribution, degraded habitat and land use (clearing, grazing, spraying, weed invasion), and illegal collection. Its habitat requirements and weak flight restrict its distribution.
The Davies’ Tree Frog (Litoria daviesae) is a medium-sized frog, with females growing to 6.5 centimetres in length and males to around 5.3 centimetres. The upper part of this frog can vary in colour, but is mainly golden brown to dark brown with mottled patches. It has a broad green band running from its snout to its shoulder, with green also along its outer thighs. It has a narrow dark stripe from its nostrils through its eyes that broadens and breaks up along its sides, and a fine white line along its upper lip. The Davies’ Tree Frog occurs in a number of small populations on the eastern escarpment of the Great Dividing Range and the adjacent tablelands, between Carrai Plateau and Barrington Tops in New South Wales. It is found at elevations above 400 metres in forest, shrubland and wetland areas, where it is associated with clean upland streams with well-vegetated banks. Adults remain close to water, and the larvae develop in streams.
This endemic frog is listed as vulnerable in New South Wales, as well as on the IUCN Red List. It is threatened by forest clearance for agriculture, and some streams have been stocked with exotic fish species, which are thought to feed on its tadpoles. The restricted range of the Davies’ Tree Frog increases its vulnerability, a fact highlighted by the recent extensive bushfires.
The Kangaroo Island Dunnart (Sminthopsis griseoventer aitkeni) is a small marsupial with a pointed snout and wide, square-shaped ears. Weighing around 25 grams, it is nocturnal and insectivorous. Little is known about the behaviour and lifecycle of this dunnart, which is the Kangaroo Island’s only endemic mammal. It was classified as critically endangered by the IUCN in 2008, when it became clear that its small population was highly localised on the western end of Kangaroo Island. Dunnarts have been found within the remnant low mallee and low woodland vegetation habitats of the Flinders Chase National Park and on privately owned conservation land. Numbering between 300 and 500 individuals before the 2019–20 bushfires, which burnt approximately one-third of the island, the dunnart has since been named by the federal government as one of Australia’s most at-risk species.
The main identified threats to the Kangaroo Island Dunnart are habitat loss through extensive and high-intensity bushfires, land clearing and Phytophthora cinnamomi dieback (a water mould that causes root rot), predation from invasive species such as feral cats, and the potential loss of genetic diversity through isolation of populations. Over the past two years, conservation efforts to save the species from extinction have helped ecologists better understand how to protect the dunnart and its habitat from threats. Immediately following the bushfires, Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife in partnership with the Australian Wildlife Conservancy and private landholders completed a 14-hectare emergency feral-animal-proof fence around a known Kangaroo Island Dunnart population. This builds on the monitoring and threat reduction efforts already in place for this critically endangered species. A feral cat eradication program aims to rid Kangaroo Island of feral cats by 2030, further protecting the dunnart and other threatened wildlife species that call the island home.
The Regent Honeyeater (Anthochaera phrygia) is a striking bird, with a black head and neck, lemon-flecked back and breast, and deep yellow wing patches and edge to its tail. This gregarious honeyeater traditionally occupied eucalypt woodlands in eastern Australia from Rockhampton to Adelaide, but its territory has been significantly reduced through the loss and degradation of its habitat and competition from aggressive species such as the Noisy Miner. This honeyeater is now present only in New South Wales and Victoria, where it is especially associated with the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range, an area affected by the bushfires.
It is classified as critically endangered on national conservation lists, as well as on the IUCN Red List. Prior to the bushfires it was thought that its number could be as low as 400 in the wild. Conservation interventions have included captive breeding and release programs since the mid-1990s, which have had mixed results, habitat protection and restoration, and control measures of the competitive Noisy Miner.
A medium-sized semi-aquatic lizard, the adult Blue Mountains Water Skink (Eulamprus leuraensis) is around 20 centimetres in total length, with its tail being around 12 centimetres. It is predominantly coloured dark brown to black, with pale to strong-yellow stripe markings from head to tail, with a dark section running the length of its back. Its dark sides and legs are marked with blotches and spots of yellow and bronze.
Found in high-elevation peat swamps in the middle and upper Blue Mountains, this skink is endemic to this region west of Sydney, and occurs from Newnes Plateau in the north-west to just south of Hazelbrook in the south-east. Prior to the bushfires, which swept through much of the Blue Mountains, it had been known to occur at around 70 wet sites. The Blue Mountains Water Skink is listed as endangered in national and state legislation, and in 2017 it was added to the IUCN Red List. Its main threats have been identified as longwall coalmining in the Newnes Plateau, which affects groundwater resources; bushfires, including hazard-reduction fires; and land use, including urbanisation, grazing and recreational activities.
The Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is one of Australia’s most distinctive and loved native animals. This tree-dwelling marsupial is highly recognisable, with its compact, tailless body coloured silver-grey to brown, its large tufted round ears, and its flat spoon-like nose. The body length of the adult Koala is 60–85 centimetres, and it can weigh up to around 15 kilograms; those in the northern part of its broad range tend to be smaller than those in the south. The Koala occurs naturally in eucalypt-dominated areas from Queensland down the eastern seaboard to Victoria. Populations have also been introduced onto some islands along that coast, as well as onto Kangaroo Island and to the Murray River and Adelaide regions in South Australia. The herbivorous Koala is a specialist feeder, almost exclusively consuming eucalypt leaves.
The Koala is listed as vulnerable in Queensland, New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory legislation, and also on the IUCN Red List. While it has an extensive range, its numbers have decreased significantly since European settlement and they continue to decrease. While estimates of the number of mature adults vary, and density differs between the various populations, they are thought to number around 300,000 across the country. The threats faced by Koalas arise from urbanisation and land use, which reduce and fragment habitat; transport corridors, which expose the Koala to fast-moving vehicles; climate change, which results in drought and bushfires; and disease. Many mainland populations are affected by chlamydia, to which koalas are susceptible, causing blindness, urinary and reproductive problems, and even death. The Kangaroo Island population (confined to the Flinders Chase National Park) is one of the few wild populations free of this disease. It is estimated that half of these Koalas were lost in the recent bushfires. In many areas during and after the bushfires, Koalas were rescued and evacuated to triage centres and shelters, and as they have been remediated they’ve been released into unaffected areas with plentiful eucalyptus.
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