Chart 1: Australia is the mammal extinction capital of the world

Modern mammal species lost since European settlement, by country

Australia’s 34 recorded mammal extinctions account for roughly 35% of all modern mammal extinctions globally a staggering proportion for a single country. These are not ancient losses. Almost all occurred after 1788, and many happened within living memory.

Chart 2: The list keeps growing and the declines are accelerating

Average population decline of threatened species since 2000, by taxonomic group

The Threatened Species Index which synthesises nearly 25,000 monitoring datasets across 335 species shows a clear pattern: the more exposed a species is to invasive predators, the worse the decline. Reptiles (down 88% since 2000) and frogs (down 67%) are in freefall. But the standout data point is mammals under active management: just a 16% decline, compared to 37% for unmanaged populations. Management works.

Chart 3: Every day, feral cats kill millions of Australia’s native animals

Annual cat kills versus threatened species impact, by prey group

The scale is almost incomprehensible. Every day, feral cats kill an estimated 3.2 million mammals, 1.9 million reptiles, and 1.2 million birds across Australia. Despite having the lowest kill volume, frogs deserve particular attention: 25% of frog species affected by cats are already Critically Endangered and they face an additional existential threat in the form of chytrid disease.

Chart 4: Which species are most threatened, and by what?

Proportion of threatened species in each group affected by major threatening processes

Select a group to highlight: Use the filter below to focus on a specific taxonomic group. Hover over any cell for exact figures.

The heatmap reveals why no single solution will fix Australia’s biodiversity crisis. For frogs, disease (92%) is the dominant threat specifically the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. For fish, it is pollution and water extraction. For mammals, invasive predators are the clear standout. And for plants and birds, habitat loss and land clearing lead the way. Each group requires its own targeted strategy.

Chart 5: Where we act, wildlife rebounds

Population change since 2000 by level of conservation management

The data makes an unanswerable case. Reptiles and frogs without formal management are collapsing down 88% and 67% respectively. But in cat- and fox-free havens, mammals have increased sixfold on average since 2000. Species once heading for mainland extinction the burrowing bettong, stick-nest rat, greater bilby are now breeding at rates that are filling the havens.

The question is not whether predator management works. The data already answers that. The question is scale: Australia’s 106 fenced havens cover a fraction of the continent. To turn the tide on extinction, the haven model needs to expand fast.

About this data story. This pitch uses five interactive data visualisations to outline the case for scaling Australia’s feral predator management program. Data are drawn from peer-reviewed research and Australian Government reports. All visualisations were built in R using ggplot2, plotly, and crosstalk. Interactivity includes: hover tooltips, scroll-to-zoom, mode bar on hover, and linked group-filtering (Chart 4 via crosstalk). If published, a full article would incorporate interviews with ecologists working inside the haven network and updated SPRAT database figures for Chart 4.