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Shocking Government list reveals 1 in 5 Australian birds and mammals face high to extreme bird flu risk

Following the release of government risk ratings revealing the potential devastation facing Australian wildlife from H5 bird flu, the Invasive Species Council is calling on the Albanese Government to immediately commit $200 million to boost the capacity of species to survive and recover from disease outbreaks.  

According to the assessment, about 300 species (some at a subspecies level) face a high to extreme risk from H5 bird flu. This includes about 30% of Australian bird species and 10% of mammal species. 

The assessment reveals:

  • 5 birds face ‘extreme risk’ (meaning they cannot survive where the virus occurs): Christmas Island frigatebird, Herald petrel, Houtman albatross, Hear Island Imperial shag, and Macquarie Island Imperial shag.
  • 66 species (some with one or more subspecies at risk) are at ‘very high risk’ (predicted to suffer very severe reductions in population size or viability): e.g. sarus crane, red goshawk, little penguin, Australasian gannet, Lord Howe woodhen, Wilson’s storm-petrel, Abbott’s booby, plains-wanderer, little shearwater, fairy tern, Australia sea lion, Australian fur seal, orca
  • 225 species (some with one or more subspecies at risk) are at ‘high risk’ (predicted to suffer severe reductions in population size or viability)
  • 13 critically endangered and 70 endangered species or subspecies are rated as extreme, very high or high risk.
  • About 250 species (some at the subspecies level) are rated as highly or very highly susceptible to bird flu. 
  • Mammals rated as very high risk include the Australian sea lion, fur seals and elephant seals. The Tasmanian devil and the eastern quoll face the highest risk for mammals on land.

‘This is a shocking list which reveals the confronting extent of the potential disaster facing Australian wildlife. That governments have had this list and not done everything possible to reduce other threats is gobsmacking,’ Jack Gough, CEO of Invasive Species Council said.

‘This is a list of doom that demands a serious response. But instead we have had cuts to on-ground environment programs nationally.

‘More than one in five Australian mammals and birds has been rated by the government as at risk of severe population reductions or even extinction. This includes many seabirds, seals and sea lions as well as terrestrial species already highly threatened.

‘If the Albanese Government doesn’t step up straight away with a genuine funding package to save wildlife then they are not taking the bird flu threat to Australian animals seriously.

‘In the face of the unstoppable threat of bird flu, we need urgent action on the threats that can be eliminated or reduced – for example, control of feral cats, foxes, and rats to improve seabird breeding rates. 

‘All Australian governments should be investing in on-ground action to reduce other threats to Australia’s most vulnerable wildlife.’

Related Content

Deadly bird flu found to spread between mammals, raising risk to Australian sea lions, seals and dolphins
‘Wildlife massacre on the scale of the black summer bushfires’: Response to government preparation package announced for deadly bird flu at our border
‘Catastrophic impacts’: Bird flu discovery on egg farm a reminder that killer strain could devastate Australia’s wild birds and seals

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    Dear Project Team,

    [YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

    I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

    The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

    The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

    This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

    Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

    Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

    Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

    I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

    Kind regards,
    [Your name]
    [Your email address]
    [Your postcode]


    Dear Project Team,

    [YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

    I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

    The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

    The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

    This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

    Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

    Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

    Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

    I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

    Kind regards,
    [Your name]
    [Your email address]
    [Your postcode]