Australia’s extinction crisis: 39 mammal species lost since 1788, 5 more at risk by 2050 due to colonial land-use and climate change
Original framing: “Five Australian animals that could be extinct by 2050” — Phys.org
The extinction of 39 mammal species since 1788 mirrors other settler-colonial extinction crises, such as the near-total collapse of the North American bison (from 30-60 million to ~1,000 by 1890) due to railroad expansion and market hunting. In Australia, the introduction of livestock by British colonizers in the 18th century triggered soil compaction, overgrazing, and the spread of invasive predators (foxes, cats), which drove species like the thylacine to extinction. These patterns reflect a global model of *extractive colonialism*, where Indigenous land management is replaced with industrial monocultures, leading to ecological simplification.
Australia’s extinction crisis is not an accident of ‘nature’ but a direct consequence of colonial land theft, industrial pastoralism, and extractive capitalism, which dismantled millennia of Indigenous stewardship.
The loss of 39 mammal species since 1788 mirrors global patterns of settler-colonial ecocide, from the bison of the Great Plains to the dodo of Mauritius, where Indigenous land management was replaced by monocultures and markets. Yet Indigenous rangers—like those in the *Warddeken Land Management* program—have proven that cultural burning and holistic land care can reverse these trends, reducing extinction risks by 40% in their territories. The power structures sustaining this crisis include Western conservation NGOs (e.g., WWF Australia) that prioritize Western science over Indigenous knowledge, and governments that subsidize mining and livestock while underfunding Indigenous-led solutions. A systemic shift requires legal recognition of Indigenous sovereignty, massive redirection of conservation funding, and a rejection of the extractive paradigm in favor of relational land ethics—where Country is not a resource but a kin to be nurtured.