Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 A separate creation: diversity, distinctiveness and conservation of Australian wildlife
- Chapter 2 New Zealand – a land apart
- Chapter 3 The ecological consequences of habitat loss and fragmentation in New Zealand and Australia
- Chapter 4 The impacts of climate change on Australian and New Zealand flora and fauna
- Chapter 5 Unwelcome and unpredictable: the sorry saga of cane toads in Australia
- Chapter 6 Invasive plants and invaded ecosystems in Australia: implications for biodiversity
- Chapter 7 Environmental weeds in New Zealand: impacts and management
- Chapter 8 The insidious threat of invasive invertebrates
- Chapter 9 Pollution by antibiotics and resistance genes: dissemination into Australian wildlife
- Chapter 10 Invasive vertebrates in Australia and New Zealand
- Chapter 11 Freshwaters in New Zealand
- Chapter 12 A garden at the edge of the world; the diversity and conservation status of the New Zealand flora
- Chapter 13 The evolutionary history of the Australian flora and its relevance to biodiversity conservation
- Chapter 14 Protecting the small majority: insect conservation in Australia and New Zealand
- Chapter 15 Terrestrial mammal diversity, conservation and management in Australia
- Chapter 16 Marine mammals, back from the brink? Contemporary conservation issues
- Chapter 17 Australian reptiles and their conservation
- Chapter 18 New Zealand reptiles and their conservation
- Chapter 19 Isolation, invasion and innovation: forces of change in the conservation of New Zealand birds
- Chapter 20 Australian birds: current status and future prospects
- Chapter 21 Austral amphibians – Gondwanan relicts in peril
- Chapter 22 Predators in danger: shark conservation and management in Australia, New Zealand and their neighbours
- Chapter 23 ‘Ragged mountain ranges, droughts and flooding rains’: the evolutionary history and conservation of Australian freshwater fishes
- Chapter 24 Down under Down Under: Austral groundwater life
- Chapter 25 Fire and biodiversity in Australia
- Chapter 26 Terrestrial protected areas of Australia
- Chapter 27 Australian marine protected areas
- Chapter 28 Marine reserves in New Zealand: ecological responses to protection and network design
- Chapter 29 Conclusion: conservation onboard Austral Ark needs all hands on deck
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Chapter 20 - Australian birds: current status and future prospects
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 A separate creation: diversity, distinctiveness and conservation of Australian wildlife
- Chapter 2 New Zealand – a land apart
- Chapter 3 The ecological consequences of habitat loss and fragmentation in New Zealand and Australia
- Chapter 4 The impacts of climate change on Australian and New Zealand flora and fauna
- Chapter 5 Unwelcome and unpredictable: the sorry saga of cane toads in Australia
- Chapter 6 Invasive plants and invaded ecosystems in Australia: implications for biodiversity
- Chapter 7 Environmental weeds in New Zealand: impacts and management
- Chapter 8 The insidious threat of invasive invertebrates
- Chapter 9 Pollution by antibiotics and resistance genes: dissemination into Australian wildlife
- Chapter 10 Invasive vertebrates in Australia and New Zealand
- Chapter 11 Freshwaters in New Zealand
- Chapter 12 A garden at the edge of the world; the diversity and conservation status of the New Zealand flora
- Chapter 13 The evolutionary history of the Australian flora and its relevance to biodiversity conservation
- Chapter 14 Protecting the small majority: insect conservation in Australia and New Zealand
- Chapter 15 Terrestrial mammal diversity, conservation and management in Australia
- Chapter 16 Marine mammals, back from the brink? Contemporary conservation issues
- Chapter 17 Australian reptiles and their conservation
- Chapter 18 New Zealand reptiles and their conservation
- Chapter 19 Isolation, invasion and innovation: forces of change in the conservation of New Zealand birds
- Chapter 20 Australian birds: current status and future prospects
- Chapter 21 Austral amphibians – Gondwanan relicts in peril
- Chapter 22 Predators in danger: shark conservation and management in Australia, New Zealand and their neighbours
- Chapter 23 ‘Ragged mountain ranges, droughts and flooding rains’: the evolutionary history and conservation of Australian freshwater fishes
- Chapter 24 Down under Down Under: Austral groundwater life
- Chapter 25 Fire and biodiversity in Australia
- Chapter 26 Terrestrial protected areas of Australia
- Chapter 27 Australian marine protected areas
- Chapter 28 Marine reserves in New Zealand: ecological responses to protection and network design
- Chapter 29 Conclusion: conservation onboard Austral Ark needs all hands on deck
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
Summary
As in much of the world, Australia’s birds have suffered greatly from habitat loss, feral predators and direct exploitation. Less universal have been the declines caused by post-colonial changes in fire regime after 40 000 years of Indigenous fire management. Climate change and a disengagement by Australians from nature loom as threats for the future. However, Australia is a country of climatic extremes and many birds are well-adapted to stressful conditions. Given adequate investment, all the major classes of threat have potential solutions, with particular success in recent decades in the removal of feral predators from islands and in reducing the by-catch from fishing. The biggest threat of all is possibly a failure to invest in conservation as modern lifestyles take people further and further away from the natural environment.
Introduction
Australia’s birds are, like those in so much of the world, travelling poorly. Of the 1239 species and subspecies regularly occurring in Australia, 17% are Threatened or Near Threatened on the basis of the IUCN Red List Criteria (Garnett et al. 2011). This number has been increasing steadily (Szabo et al. 2012a) and, while originally it was taxa of Australia’s oceanic islands that were most likely to be threatened, taxa from the mainland are now starting to slip away (Szabo et al. 2012b). Sadly some of those most threatened are the most distinctive; birds at the end of long slender branches of the evolutionary tree whose closest relatives are long gone. Other species, however, are thriving under the conditions that have arisen over the past few centuries of intense development.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Austral ArkThe State of Wildlife in Australia and New Zealand, pp. 422 - 439Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014