The Atlas of Living Australia provides information and manages data on threatened species and migratory species based on advice from Commonwealth, state and territory agencies. It’s important to understand how they are handled at the ALA and how they can be correctly used. 

Threatened and migratory species

Many factors can be used to determine a species' conservation status (including their status as threatened, migratory or marine), such as: how many individuals are left, population trends over time, known threats, and breeding success. There are global systems for recognising conservation status: the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List is the most well-known.

Australia is also a signatory to international treaties that protect biodiversity. Two important overarching agreements are the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (also known as CITES). There are also a number of agreements protecting migratory birds: the Bonn Convention, the Japan-Australia Migratory Bird Agreement, the China-Australia Migratory Bird Agreement and the Republic of Korea-Australia Migratory Bird Agreement.

Within Australia, there is legislation at Commonwealth level and within each state and territory to conserve and protect Australia’s native species. Each jurisdiction maintains a list of threatened species that are subject to special measures of protection. In most jurisdictions, there are separate lists for terrestrial and marine species. For more details on the legislation, visit the websites of the relevant state and territory agencies.

Threatened and migratory species in the ALA

The ALA shows species conservation status by each jurisdiction, and according to international migratory bird agreements. This status is shown under the species page for a given species and threatened species lists are also available from our conservation status-related lists.

We display conservation information on our species pages with an icon for each state that the species is listed on. Let’s use Lathamus discolor (Swift Parrot) as an example, critically endangered in Australia and the ACT, and Endangered in NSW, QLD, SA, TAS, VIC (Figure 1). 

Figure 1. Lathamus discolor (swift parrot) conservation status

As the ALA only derives and displays the lists at various points in time, users should always remember that the most reliable source of information remains the list provided by the relevant Commonwealth, State or Territory agency.

It is equally important to note that the taxonomy that the ALA uses is based on the National Species List maintained by the Australian Biological Resources Study. There are sometimes differences between the scientific names accepted by a state or territory and those accepted nationally. Both the name provided by the agency and the ALA name are shown in the conservation status-related lists.

Lastly, the ALA displays the status as provided by an agency. For example, the tiger quoll (Dasyurus maculatus) has a number of sub-species, such as Dasyurus maculatus maculatus. If an agency has listed Dasyurus maculatus as threatened at species level, then the listing will not be shown at the subspecies level of Dasyurus maculatus maculatus (and vice versa).

FAQs

Which species in a specific location are on threatened or migratory lists?

The best way to access this information is by searching by location. Once you have a list of species in a certain area you can then refine your search using filters, one of the filters available is conservation status. Bear in mind that sensitive species records are generalised and it might be sensible to create a buffer around your area of interest in order to pick up generalised records.