The Australian Government has officially acknowledged the extinction of 13 native species, including 12 mammals and the first reptile known to have been lost since European colonisation.
Australia is the world’s capital for mammal extinction, with a total of 34 mammals known to have become extinct.
More than 10% of land mammals known to have lived in Australia in 1788 are extinct.
The Wilderness Society’s Suzanne Milthorpe said there was “not another country, rich or poor, that has anything like this record” in mammal extinction.
Haiti is next on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature list for mammal extinctions with a total of 9.