National Threatened Species Day 2008
National Threatened Species Day (NTSD) is held on 7 September each year - commemorating the death of the last Tasmanian tiger at Hobart Zoo in 1936.
Rufous hare-wallaby
© WWF-Canon / Martin Harvey
Events are held nationally throughout September - Biodiversity Month. Recipients of Round 11 of the TSN Community Grants will also be announced on 7 September.
Australia's landscapes and species have been severely impacted by over 200 years of habitat loss and fragmentation. The impacts of land development, introduced plants and animals, grazing, salinity, changed fire regimes, pollution, and a changing climate all place additional pressure on our threatened species and their shrinking habitats.
For 18 years TSN has worked with a range of community groups to protect and manage threatened species and their habitats.
Factsheets
The following factsheets describe a number of threatened species and what you can do to help!
Factsheet: Yakka skink
The Brigalow Belt bioregion is a large and complex area covering 36,400,000ha that has been identified as a biodiversity hotspot by the Australian Government. It has been recognised for its biodiversity values and the existing levels of threat to those values. It is home to a dazzling array of distinctive flora and fauna, including the yakka skink.
Factsheet: Toolibin Lake
Toolibin Lake, in southwest Australia, is an area of high conservation value being one of the last remaining inland freshwater lakes found there. It is an ecological community, an area of unique and naturally occurring groups of plants and animals, and is the largest remaining wetland of this type in south west Australia.
Factsheet: Spot-tailed quoll
Four species of quolls are found in Australia. Most parts of the country were once inhabited by at least one quoll species and they were among the first native animals to be described by European scientists. All quoll species have declined in numbers since European settlement.
Factsheet: Gouldian finch
The Gouldian finch is a medium-sized grass eating bird that lives only in the northern savannas region of Australia. It is a strikingly colourful bird which was once very common. Although Gouldian finches are popular as pets around the world, less than 2500 adult finches remain in the wild. These remaining finches are broken up into isolated flocks, most with less than 100 birds each.
Factsheet: Flatback turtle
Flatbacks only nest on northern Australian beaches. However they sometimes travel as far as the Indonesian archipelago and the Papua New Guinea coast to feed.
Factsheet: Carnaby's black-cockatoo
Carnaby's black-cockatoos are found only in Western Australia and are one of only two species of white-tailed black-cockatoo found anywhere in the world. The other is Baudin's black-cockatoo. Both of these species are unique to southwest Australia.
Factsheet: Buloke woodlands
The buloke woodlands of the Riverina and Murray-Darling Depression Bioregions are listed as a threatened ecological community by the Australian Government. The woodlands occur across the Riverina and Murray-Darling bioregions in tracts or patches within other habitats such as open forests or woodlands.
Factsheet: Brush-tailed rock wallaby
These unique and beautiful acrobats of the marsupial world leap and bound their way around rocky outcrops and cliff ledges in rugged and steep country near the east coast of Australia. Of the 15 species of rock wallaby in Australia, most have disappeared from their original range and are now considered threatened.
