Threatened Species Day highlights vulnerable local plants and animals

Threatened Species Day is an opportunity to raise awareness of the challenges facing vulnerable plants, animals and ecosystems across Australia, while highlighting the important role habitat protection and restoration can play in supporting their recovery.

Across the Hills and Fleurieu, native species continue to face significant pressures, but wildlife experts say there is still time to reverse declines through sustained conservation efforts and community action.

From freshwater fish and wetland frogs to woodland birds, small marsupials and a diverse range of plants, native species across the region are affected by ongoing threats that impact the habitats they rely on for food, shelter and breeding.

These pressures include habitat loss, disease, invasive pests and a changing climate, which together are reducing the resilience of many species and ecosystems.

Landscapes Hills and Fleurieu’s Regional Ecologist Luke Price said many of the region’s threatened species are not widely recognised, but their loss would have significant consequences.

“These aren’t always the species people recognise, but they’re critical to how our ecosystems function, and we’re seeing them decline. Today, more than 340 plant and animal species across the Hills and Fleurieu are considered threatened with extinction, which shows just how significant the challenge has become," Mr Price said.

Mr Price said reversing these declines would require sustained investment in recovery programs, habitat protection, restoration and threat reduction across the landscape.

Fauna species that are a high priority for conservation action in the Hills and Fleurieu

Source: Action Plan for Threatened Species and Ecological Communities 2026-2040.

Flora species that are a high priority for conservation action in the Hills and Fleurieu

Source: Action Plan for Threatened Species and Ecological Communities 2026-2040.