Wildlife Australia Magazine Wildlife Australia Magazine Autumn 2021 Back Issue

FOR CONSERVATION attention, threatened marine species and ecosystems – apart from the ‘big end of town’ whales, dolphins and the Great Barrier Reef – seem to be ‘out-of-sight, out-of-mind’.
This is especially true of the keystone shark and ray species which are so vital to the health of our oceans. The report on sharks and rays in this edition offers a grim warning.
To hear that more than 70 percent of oceanic shark and ray populations have gone over the past 50 years, worldwide, beggars belief. Sadly, the law is at a loss to control rogue vessels and ‘dark’ industrial-scale fishing fleets that turn off transponders to avoid being tracked across national sea borders, and where massive illegal catches – of endangered sharks and rays – are rarely brought to justice. We take a closer look at the dangers facing sharks and rays globally – and urge Australia to protect its own waters against impending overfishing threats.
In this edition we launch a two-part series on the four varieties of quoll and learn how important they are to Australian forest ecosystems as a keystone species – a species under threat from feral cats and dogs, as well as critical habitat clearing.
Unfortunately, there is more bad news on threatened plant species, with the Threatened Species Recovery Hub’s Threatened Plant Index of Australia showing a 70 percent decline in numbers of threatened plants across Australia.
Safeguarding Australia’s Wildlife by the Humane Society and BG Economics is a qualitative study of the impacts of the 2019-20 mega-bushfires. This summary by Christine Donkin makes for sober reading – and the report’s calls to action for the future are vital.
The Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year is a familiar name – Robert Irwin of Australia Zoo. We present the amazing winning images.