Our Populations are Being Threatened!!!
Australia’s mammal populations are dwindling. Australia is losing an average of a few species
of its mammals every year! “The loss of Australian mammals went largely unnoticed until
recently”, said John Woinarski, a conservation biologist from Darwin, Australia.
Summary of Facts
Our Populations are Being Threatened!!!
Claim and evidence
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Our Populations are Being Threatened!!!
In 1788, England established a colony in
Australia. These European settlers
spread widely. In time, they created the
nation of Australia.
A recent study found that four out of
every ten species that has become
extinct recently has called Australia
home. Every ten years, the Australian
continent has lost one or two of its
mammal species.
Most of the now extinct mammals were
inconspicuous, shy, nocturnal, small and
lived remote from most human
population centers.
The English first settled in Eastern
Australia. A half-century later, mammal
losses began near there. Those losses
spread to central Australia in the 1890s.
Seven once-common species that
disappeared from Australia still survive
on neighboring islands. Neither cats nor
foxes have ever lived on these islands.
Elsewhere in the world, large mammals
have been the ones most likely to go
extinct. But in Australia, vulnerable
animals have only weighed a mere 1.2
ounces to 12 pounds.
Almost all the other continents have a
wide range of “felid” (all types of cats)
and “canid” (dogs, wolves, fox, etc.)
organisms that inhabit that continent
naturally. Australia, however, does not.
Cattle, sheep, cats and red fox are
species brought in to Australia. None of
these species are Native (natural) to the
continent. The herbivores are reducing
the plant cover in many places.
There has been an infectious cancer
that is killing off Tasmanian devils.
These mammals are small, aggressive
marsupials.
Invasive species, also known as alien
species, are species that are becoming
established in a new environment.
There is often an absence of natural
factors that control their spread.