Iconic Aussie animals that could be missing:

1. Superb fairy-wren

Last week, The Guardian dropped the news that this common, bright blue and black garden-dweller could be extinct within the next 30–40 years thanks to climate damage.

It is quite frankly terrifying that a bird that was so recently considered common could plummet toward extinction so quickly.

James Cook University ecologist Martijn van de Pol, a senior author of the recent study that unveiled these findings, said, "Using various climate models, we found that human-induced climate change is likely to cause a high risk of population extinction within the next 50 years, even with optimistic emission scenarios."

Turns out we don't just need to worry about threatened species, we also need to worry about those that seem to be doing okay today. Talk about canary in a coal mine.

2. Victorian grassland earless dragon

This tiny dragon holds an unenviable title: it is the most at risk of all snake and lizard species in Australia.

Once common across the grasslands west of Melbourne, the Victorian grassland earless dragon was thought to be extinct for 54 years. But in 2023, the striped lizard was rediscovered and became a nationally listed threatened species in the same year.