MEDIA RELEASE

For release 16 February 2018

Critically endangered listing prompts call for action to save northern hairy-nosed wombat

The northern hairy-nosed wombat has been upgraded to critically endangered under national legislation as outlined in an updated list published Thursday.

This reflects a righting of an apparent listing anomaly at the time the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act was introduced in 2000.

We know the species is critically endangered – the IUCN placed it on their Red List following the population plummeting to as few as 35 individuals in the 1980s.

We’ve made some good progress since then, but there’s still only 250 northern hairy-nosed wombats left in the world, most of them in one national park.

In 2016, The Wombat Foundation released the Room to Grow report that found that the species may reach carrying capacity at Epping Forest National Park as early as 2025.

Jacqui Mills, Director of The Wombat Foundation said, “Australian national legislation now officially acknowledges the critically endangered status of the northern hairy-nosed wombat. This is a reminder of the urgency to find additional protected areas for the species to mitigate the risk of extinction due to fire, flood or disease.

We’re calling on landholders, local communities, government, and the philanthropic community to join us as we search for new protected areas to bring the northern hairy-nosed wombat back from the brink of extinction”.

ENDS

Contact

Jacqui Mills, Director, The Wombat Foundation T: 1300 495 043
E: jacqueline@wombatfoundation.com.au