This issue contains wondrous creatures: bilbies, peacock spiders, golden bats and more. Stories of people celebrating and helping the vulnerable and threatened to survive.
Threatened Species Day, 7 September marks the day the last Thylacine died in captivity in 1936. A day to contemplate the vast number of native species under threat.
Day of the Species community art project photographed by Genevieve French
Photographs by Maria Fernanda Cardoso
"I think if paradise existed, it would be inhabited by beautiful creatures such as these."
For Maria Fernanda, the Maratus spider holds a special place in the natural ecosystem:
"The Maratus spiders of Australia are the most colourful, flamboyant, sexy, and charming spiders on the planet. To me, their use of colour, gesture, sound and movement makes them sophisticated visual and performing artists. They are also the smallest performers I know of, on average about 3—5mm in size, smaller than a grain of rice."
"The male has to try extremely hard (both in visual communication as well as in charm and perseverance) to be ‘chosen’ by her. She exercises her right to choose, and drives him to display an excess of vibrant colour and performance virtuosity in a complex courtship ritual."
Maria Fernanda Cardoso was born in Bogota, Colombia in 1963. She has lived and worked in Sydney since 1997. Drawing inspiration from the natural world, her work incorporates a range of non-traditional materials transformed into installations, sculptures, performances, photography and video. Maria Fernanda Cardoso has exhibited widely in Australia and internationally for over four decades.
Developed and toured by MCA Australia, Maria Fernanda Cardoso: Spiders of Paradise celebrates the wonder of the Australian Maratus spider. It will be presented in six galleries across Australia, starting in Cairns.
We thank Maria Fernanda Cardoso and the MCA gallery for sharing this amazing work.
All images pigment print on paper, framed, courtesy the artist and Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney ©Maria Fernanda Cardoso.
Professor Carolyn Hogg and a consortium of scientists have sequenced the bilby genome. The world-first mapping of its genetic blueprint provides a vital tool for conservation of this threatened night dweller.
Professor Carolyn Hogg photographed by Matteo Dal Vera for Wilderness Journal. Interview by Liz Ginis
"Bilbies are weird," says Professor Carolyn Hogg.
“For instance, they have more olfactory receptors than any other marsupial, so they have this really, really acute sense of smell. Oh, and they have one X chromosome and two Y chromosomes, which is just bizarre. Some of my colleagues, chromosomal scientists, are exceptionally excited about that.”
You could be forgiven for thinking Carolyn is more than a little obsessed with this pint-sized native. But when you learn she has just sequenced its entire genome, a world first, her enthusiasm is easily explained.
“We had the opportunity to sequence the bilby’s reference genome and through that we’ve been able to discover all these unique characteristics, which are pretty cool," she says. "Or at least I think they’re pretty cool.”
This first mapping of the bilby’s genetic blueprint includes biological information on how they grow and evolve, and will play a vital role in conserving the threatened species.
Around the size of a rabbit, and often referred to as the Aussie Easter bunny, the bilby is a comic-book concoction of large ears, elongate snout, silky pale blue-grey fur, black and white tail and backward-facing pouch. It emerges from its burrow at night to hunt, using strong forelimbs and long claws to find food and turn over soil and organic matter.
Before European settlement, two species ranged the continent—the lesser bilby, which died out in the 1930s, and the greater bilby, which now exists in only 20 percent of its former habitat range, the central deserts of Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
Populations nosedived after the introduction of predatory cats and foxes, and were outcompeted for food by rabbits. Today, small wild populations are managed by Indigenous rangers while 6,000 bilbies live in the metapopulation housed in fenced sanctuaries, on islands and in zoos.
“Using DNA from two deceased zoo bilbies–male and female–we have produced one of the highest-quality marsupial genomes to date,” says Carolyn. “It offers insights into biology, evolution and population management.”
The team also created the first genome for the extinct lesser bilby from the skull of a specimen collected in 1898.
When I catch up with Carolyn on a blustery winter’s day at the University of Sydney, where she is the co-lead for the Australasian Wildlife Genomics Group in the Faculty of Science, she explains why this breakthrough is so important for the bilby.
“The best analogy I can give,” she says, ”is that it’s like when you do a jigsaw puzzle. You tip the box upside down on your dining room table, you spread out all the pieces and you spend ages finding the edges and the colours that are similar.
“And then you take the puzzle box lid, with its photo of a landscape, an animal or whatever the puzzle is based on, and you sit and you work it out, using that image. And that's literally what you're doing when you're putting together a reference genome—you sequence all these tiny little pieces of DNA, and then you have to sit and try to figure out how it all goes back together. And once you have, you have the complete picture of the animal. You can use it for taxonomy, and for understanding and managing populations.
“So, for instance, by using it to help select individuals for translocation and release, we maximise genetic diversity. This improves the population’s ability to adapt to a changing world.
“It can also be useful for comparative genetics between species.”
The team also used the genome to develop a more precise scat-testing method to complement existing traditional land-use practices by Indigenous rangers.
“We know a lot about bilbies—where they live, what they eat and how to track them,” said ranger Scott West from the Kiwirrkurra Indigenous Protected Area in Western Australia.
“The DNA work will help us check if bilbies are related, where they are from and how far they have travelled. Using old-ways and new-ways together helps us get good information about bilbies and how to look after them. This is what two-way science is.”
While Carolyn is now focused on marsupials, she started her career studying far larger animals.
“I grew up in South Africa and spent my childhood holidays in Kruger National Park, watching the elephants and other big mammals. They were marvellous. We moved to Australia when I was 10, and I became fascinated by whales. So much so that I spent much of my early career in the North Atlantic, off Canada, and Hawaii studying them. They’re absolutely majestic. You think they’re big when viewed from a whale-watching boat, and then you go in a research boat—where you're allowed to get much closer–and they're even bigger. And then you get in the water with them and they look at you—it just blows your mind.”
Carolyn switched to marsupials after the birth of her second child. “To be honest, I wasn’t really sure I wanted to study them, I mean, who wants to be up all night [her study subjects are largely nocturnal], but doing fieldwork with whales around the world wasn’t very conducive to family life.”
Her reservations soon dissipated, however, when she started work on Tasmanian devils in an effort to tackle the emerging problem of facial tumours, which threatened to wipe out the population. “It’s an ongoing scourge and I spend time in the field each year working with them. The devils are some of my most challenging, and rewarding, subjects.”
Today, Carolyn is also the Chair of the Threatened Species Initiative, which aims to improve conservation practices by using cutting-edge genomics technology and advanced computational biology to transform the way the conservation industry manages wildlife recovery programs.
“While everyone talks about biodiversity restoration, very few people talk about genetic diversity restoration, yet it’s critical,” she says. “So we’re trying to get that message across to the industry at large. You can repair and regenerate the land, and you can introduce a host of different species, but if each one of those species don’t have a lot of genetic diversity, the entire ecosystem gets very wobbly.”
With this latest genomic research, Carolyn and her team have accelerated science to ensure the ongoing survival of the bilby.
But more than that, they have made further inroads into preserving all life on our spinning orb.
“DNA is the building block of life, regardless of what species it is. And so if we truly want to understand life on Earth, and hopefully save it, then we need to understand the building blocks."
Thank you Matteo Dal Vera and the Kiwirrkurra IPA for your photographs.
Using traditional weaving skills, members of the Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Co-operative and the Yarrawarra Aboriginal Cultural Centre, on Gumbaynggirr Country in northern NSW, are providing homes for golden-tipped bats after the devastating 2019–20 bushfires.
Photographs courtesy Muurrbay and Yarrawarra; Words by Troy Beer
This is the story of a vulnerable spider-eating mammal, shared Traditional Knowledge and skills, ecological science, community participation and the aftermath of bushfire. It captures the type of cooperation and action needed to protect many of Australia’s vulnerable and threatened species.
At the centre of it all is a small—very small—bat. It weighs a little less than a 20-cent piece, is slightly bigger than your thumb, has fur tipped with gold and a sharp set of teeth. Golden-tipped bats (Phoniscus papuensis) range from the Victorian border along the east coast up as far as Papua, but the species is currently listed as Vulnerable. It likes to live along rainforest creeks, in Gumbaynggirr Country (Northern NSW) where our story takes place. These are the coastal forest habitats, including ancient Godwannan rainforests and other wet forest types, that are increasingly under threat from deforestation. Since it doesn’t range far on the wing, habitat fragmentation makes it difficult for the species to move to a new range. This makes all the threats that impact so many species—feral predators, changing climate, natural disasters and loss of old tree homes—all the more menacing for the little bats.
While this bat doesn’t fly far it flies fast. It spends nights using echolocation to hunt for orb-weaving spiders that it picks straight from the web. But it has one more excellent trick for when it needs to take a break. In the Gumbaynggirr forests, the bats roost in the nests of yellow-throated scrubwrens and brown gerygones. While the birds use the upstairs, the bats sneak in the bottom of the nests finding protection within the leaves and vines, their gold-tipped fur camouflaging them among the nest fibres. Multiple bats can be found squished into the bird nests, which are often found hung over creeks. The thin sticks that nests usually hang from provide further protection, being too thin for the weight of snakes and other predators trying to reach the nest.
For the bats, there are usually enough nests hanging about to allow them to change their Airbnb resting place almost daily. Plus these nests are situated in prime orb-weaving spider-hunting territory, having food close by is important when you need to eat almost half your body weight each night.
But the catastrophic 2019/20 bushfires tore through these wet-forest creek areas; places that do not normally burn were scorched right down to the water. This destroyed much of the habitat and, critically, the nests the bats relied on for a home. One study found occupancy fell sharply from 90% to 20%, even a year later, badly burnt rainforest was no longer used by this bat species.* While the birds that the bats cohabited with could move on to unburnt areas, the bats’ habitat would take years to recover and they couldn’t fly large distances to follow the birds to a new home. Bat numbers were already smashed during the fires; the species simply couldn’t wait years for the birds to return and start building homes for them. Something had to be done.
It was in 2020 that the Girrimarring wiirrilgal bulany ngayanbading project began, which literally translates to a poetic 'bat nest type fur sun like'. The name was coined by Uncle Gary Williams and Brother Steve, from project partners the Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Co-operative. The project began as part of the NSW government Save our Species program in response to the bushfires. Research indicated that to allow the bat population to recover they were going to need to be provided with roosts. But it turns out the golden-tipped bats are picky about the places they couch-surf. Standard wooden nesting boxes wouldn’t cut it and an attempt to use mop heads also failed.
So, drawing on Traditional Knowledge and skills, people from Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Co-operative and the Yarrawarra Aboriginal Cultural Centre began weaving nests that looked more like those that the scrub wrens produced from local dried plants.
At Muurrbay, master weaver Aunty Lauren Jarrett brought her traditional weaving skills to the project. She developed examples of the roosts, in collaboration with scientists from NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), using the nests of the yellow-throated scrubwren as a model.
"Weaving is a humble craft and we were able to utilise a simple technique to ensure the longevity of our microbats roosts and make sure the width and length mimicked the wrens' nests"
Aunty Lauren is also a teacher, so taught the wider community and schools around Muurrbay how to source material and weave the nests for this project. Aunty Lauren shared, "For many of the Indigenous kids, it was a beneficial cultural task learning about the microbat—a local totem, surrounding plants and weaving techniques."
Lilly Clegg, Gumbaynggirr artist and events coordinator at Yarrawarra on beautiful Girrin-da (Corindi Beach), has been weaving since she was 16, beginning as an apprentice to master weaver Aunty Dee Murphy. She jumped at the chance to deliver workshops at Yarrawarra to engage the community in weaving roosts.
“It brought people together and was a lot of fun, collecting fibres, trying different techniques and materials depending on the areas the nests were going into. The next step was to take it to schools, giving them the chance to not only weave roosts but get out into the bush and hang them.”
The activities across both Centres brought community members and school kids, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, together to produce an assortment of nest types to tempt the bats to move in. It was also a chance to go out with NSW DCCEEW staff on Country to identify the ideal locations and then hang the nests on thin sticks around the rainforest waterways.
From tightly woven to loose-tied sticks and leaves, the roosts often look like art pieces. But the critics who have the final say are the bats.
Lilly recalls, “As much as I wanted to produce tightly woven pieces, it seemed more pendulous, loosely tied constructions were what the bats wanted. But we were aware that the birds’ nests with all the discarded stuff left from laying eggs provide a waterproof plug above the bats. So we tried to replicate this feature also.
“One thing that has been difficult to replicate though is the smell, the smell of the nest also masks the bats’, keeping their scent from predators.”
Aunty Lauren identified some key features they were aiming for with their roost designs, "Lightweight enough to hang off thin branches, rough textures so the bats can grip on upside down, water-shedding to keep them light and durable enough to last for a year in the forest."
In 2024, the first bats were found roosting in the handmade homes. Because the bats are so small, fly fast and change homes regularly, tracking them using movement or heat-sensing cameras has been difficult. So accurately identifying where the bats are nesting often comes down to people getting out there and quietly peering into nests, which is ongoing work as part of the NSW government initiative. Along with other species of birds and rodents, it is now clear that bats are starting to use these new roosts.
These nest constructions will need to be replaced over time, with the fibres often pilfered by birds using them for their own nests, so there is a need for the program to continue. There are plans afoot to take the roost-building workshops to other communities on Gumbaynggirr Country.
So for now, with ongoing funding, the weavers of the Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Co-operative and the Yarrawarra Aboriginal Cultural Centre communities, will continue to produce temporary homes for the little bats, giving them a place to sleep while the rainforests continue the slow recovery from bushfire.
Day of the Species—a project started by Carmel Killin in 2019—is not just an art piece, or exhibition it is a comprehensive, evolving, artistic documentation of Australia's entire list of threatened plants and animals.
There are currently 2,015 species in the project, both fauna and flora, all on the Australian government EPBC Act List of Threatened Fauna and Flora.
Each one is represented as a tiny unique artwork - about half the size of a credit card—hand drawn onto packaging by over 280 professional and amateur artists. Contributors come from all across Australia and are multigenerational, including school children, professional artists, activists and scientists. All give their own vision to depicting these unique species beyond being just a name on an ever growing government website.
Carmel started the project at a kitchen table in the suburbs of Melbourne in 2019 and had its debut exhibition between pandemic lockdowns in September 2020 to honour National Threatened Species Day. Since then, unfortunately, the collection of artworks has continued to grow, making greater exposure all the more important.
UPDATE: In August and September new species were added to the EPBC list, it is now around 2,035 species on the list.
In 2023, Day of the Species began a partnership with the Wilderness Society, to further amplify the message that bold action to protect threatened species needs to be taken. Part of this involved scanning all the artworks to allow them to be shared online.
This year's exhibition, Carmel's fifth, has been running through August at Black Spark Cultural Centre in Melbourne featuring the entire collection plus a range of community events and activities, all designed to deepen engagement, learning and action for threatened species.
It is an extraordinary project to see exhibited, being able to explore the details of each work as well as take in the scale of the sheer number of species represented. Thanks to all the artists involved.
If you're in Melbourne the closing night is Saturday, 7 September at Black Spark, 126a Gladstone Ave, Northcote. Come along for a night of entertainment as we contemplate the 2,015 and counting species and what can be done for them.
Discover more about Day of the Species
A look at some old Wilderness Society News, Vol. 6, No.6, August 1985.
Members were urged to send a telegram to the Tasmanian Minister demanding a public enquiry into wood chipping in 1985.
At this stage the Thylacine is only listed as, may be extinct. Also listed as in danger are the eastern pygmy possum, swift parrot and long-nosed potaroo. Nearly 40 years on these fauna are still under threat from deforestation.
Critically Endangered Flora - 280 species
Endangered Flora - 587 species
Note the below is only A to B in the list of 587.
You have made it down to B in the list of Endangered Flora - see the complete list of Endangered Flora in Australia
Explore what can be done and why - extinction is a choice
We recognise First Nations as the custodians of land and water across the continent of Australia and pay our respects to Elders past and present. We acknowledge sovereignty was never ceded.
