A striking black and red cockatoo with picky eating habits and a mountain-climbing lizard are the latest to be inscribed on Australia's growing list of threatened species.
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The Black Summer bushfires of 2019/20 took a heavy toll on both animals, with federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek formally declaring on Tuesday that both are in trouble.
The south-eastern glossy black-cockatoo has been listed as vulnerable under federal environment laws, after an estimated 38 per cent of its range was affected by the blazes.
Concerns are even greater for the mountain skink, which lives in isolated patches of rocky habitat in the mountains and subalpine areas of Victoria, NSW and the ACT that were also hit by the fires. It's now listed as endangered.
They join the koala, greater glider and gang-gang cockatoo as Australian species recently categorised as under threat of extinction.
Sophie Power, from the Australian Conservation Foundation, says the combined effects of land clearing, logging, invasive species and climate change are taking a devastating toll on Australia's unique biodiversity.
"The South-eastern glossy black cockatoos feed almost exclusively on cones from mature female casuarina trees and they need the hollows of old eucalypts for nesting - these trees were hit hard by the devastating bushfires," she says.
She says Australia has one of the world's highest extinction rates and that will only change with stronger environment laws, an independent regulator to enforce them and adequate funding for species recovery.
Plans are now in place to protect both species and Ms Plibersek has promised sweeping reforms of Australia's environment laws after the recent release of the shocking State of the Environment report.
The five-yearly report found the overall condition of the environment was poor and deteriorating, with climate change adding a devastating new layer to an accumulation of other threats.
The result was a growing list of threatened species trying to survive in shrinking and degraded ecosystems that were being ineffectively managed under an inadequate set of laws, with too little money, the report found.
She's also promised a new independent environment protection agency to enforce tougher new laws, and has flagged the creation of a new biodiversity credits scheme that would pay Australians to repair and nurture the habitat on their properties.
The government has also promised to set up a Saving Native Species Program to boost protection for species like the cockatoo and the lizard.
Australian Associated Press
