Up to 20,000 animals died late last year; decision is one of several made by Melissa Price after criticism over inaction

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The federal government has upgraded the threatened status of a flying fox after almost a third of its population was wiped out in Queensland’s recent heatwave.

The environment minister, Melissa Price, said the spectacled flying fox would be listed nationally as endangered, up from vulnerable, to “reflect heightened concerns for its future”.

It is estimated more than 20,000 flying foxes died in extreme heat in Queensland late last year.

Humane Society International nominated the species for an endangered listing and the decision is one of five the group said had been delayed with the minister.

Price also announced on Monday that the five vacancies on the government’s threatened species scientific committee have been filled.

'The invisible minister': Melissa Price accused of going missing on the environment Read more

She said the government had reappointed the chair of the committee, Prof Helene Marsh, along with fellow committee members David Keith and Dave Kendal.

“I have strengthened the committee’s ability to provide advice that draws on Indigenous knowledge and helps land managers to care for their country by appointing Ms Cissy Gore-Birch, a Jaru/Kija woman from Western Australia, and Dr Richard Harper from the School of Veterinary and Life Sciences at Murdoch University,” Price said.

The announcements come after Guardian Australia published concerns from environment groups who described the minister as “invisible” during a summer of natural disasters and accused her delaying decisions in her portfolio and not meeting with key groups.

On Monday the minister also confirmed the bramble cay melomys, a small rodent that hasn’t been since since 2009, would be formally declared extinct under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

Humane Society International (HSI) said decisions on three woodlands, recommended for either listings as either critically endangered or endangered ecological communities by the scientific committee, had again been delayed by the minister, this time until June.

Two of the woodlands were first recommended for a critically endangered listing in 2017, when Josh Frydenberg was the minister, and have been repeatedly delayed since then.

“After 18 months of pointless delays by her predecessor Josh Frydenberg, Minister Price has finally given spectacled flying-foxes the endangered listing they have been in desperate need of,” said HSI’s head of programs, Evan Quartermain.

“It may have been overdue by several weeks, but we commend the minister for breaking the pattern of delay the first time the decision was hers to make and look forward to increased prioritisation of recovery actions to turn the species’ trajectory towards extinction around.”

But he said the decision to defer the listings for the woodlands “tempers the positive action for spectacled flying-foxes considerably”.

“Critically endangered forests vital to the survival of orange-bellied parrots and endangered habitat for koalas will now continue to be destroyed while landholder opportunities for recovery funding go begging,” he said.