For thousands of years, generations of Melomys rubicola lived and bred on a sandy bank in the Torres Strait known as Bramble Cay. Some time between 2009 and 2014 the last of this species died; probably drowned in a storm surge.

Unlike koalas or whales, the small rodent was never cute enough to rate much of a conservation effort. It's only with its extinction - noted for the first time by the Federal Government, in a press release from Environment Minister Melissa Price - that it's attracted interest from beyond the circle of biologists and conservationists that warned of its demise.

This was probably the first recorded mammal species-loss because of human-induced climate change, according to the Queensland Government, which reported on the extinction in 2016.

Share Facebook

Twitter

Mail

Whatsapp Bramble Cay.

John Woinarski, a professor at Charles Darwin University who has published research on the species, said its loss was entirely foreseeable and preventable.

"It's been known for a couple of decades it was in a pretty precarious position," he told Hack.

"It suffered from living a long way away from anywhere else, and being a rat and being not particularly attractive.

"It didn't have much public advocacy for it."

He said the extinction of the Bramble Cay melomys is a story of underfunded conservation programs, plans that were written but never implemented, and the fact that the public simply cares more about charismatic animals.

It's also a clear warning that other Australian animals are at risk - such as the spectacled flying fox, which saw a third of its population wiped out in Queensland's recent heatwave. Announcing the extinction of the melomys, the government noted it had also upgraded the spectacled flying fox to endangered.

'The rescue mission was too late'

Living on an island just three metres high and five-hectares in area (the size of two MCGs), the melomys survived on washed-up vegetation. A survey team in 2009 noted the vegetation on the island had declined, possibly because of occasional storm surges. They also noted substantially fewer melomys.

"There was less and less vegetation on the island, and then there was probably a major storm surge event and the whole island went underwater temporarily," Professor Woinarski said.

He said that climate change would have "substantially contributed".

It could have been simply storm events unrelated to climate change, but climate change has also been causing sea water to rise in the area.

A short survey of the island in 2014 found no trace of the species.

Share Facebook

Twitter

Mail

Whatsapp Bramble Cay.

Share Facebook

Twitter

Mail

Whatsapp

Share Facebook

Twitter

Mail

Whatsapp Bramble Cay melomys.

Scientists set out to conduct a much more systematic search and capture any remaining melonyms to start a captive breeding program. But it took five months to get necessary permission for captive breeding from various Australian governmental agencies and stakeholders.

When they arrived in 2015 they still could not find a single melomys.

The team leader, Ian Gyther, said at the time the rescuers had been too slow to respond.

By the time it was apparent that a captive breeding program was required as an urgent conservation action, it was already too late.

Share Facebook

Twitter

Mail

Whatsapp Searching for Bramble Cay melomys in 2015.

The subsequent report said the "root cause" of the extinction was sea-level rise, which was a consequence of global warming.

In Senate Estimates on Monday, Greens Senator Janet Rice asked Dean Knudson, an official at the Department of Environment and Energy, what the department had learned from the extinction of the Bramble Cay melomys.

"The predominance of the money we are investing over the course of the next few years is on threatened species," he said.

It is an enormous challenge for the country.

"I think we've said before at the fauna species inquiry that we don't shy away from the fact that we have a large challenge ahead of us."

"Obviously, losing a species is not something that anyone would seek to have happen, and certainly we will try to make sure that we are as effective as possible, going forward, with the types of challenges that Australia is facing."

'Recovery plan never implemented'

According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which each year produces a 'red list' of threatened species, about 600 Australian species are in a vulnerable state. Another 100 species are endangered.

Senate estimates heard on Monday there are 176 species and ecological communities that require a recovery plan but do not yet have one.

The Bramble Cay melomys had a recovery plan drafted in 2008, when the species was not yet extinct. But according to Professor Woinarski, who was on the national committee that approved the plan, it was never implemented.

"That's part of the problem," he told Hack.

"Lot's of plans get written for recovery and threatened species but there's not necessarily the funding."

He added that although a captive breeding program would have saved the melomys, the only long-term solution was reducing emissions.

The fires in Tasmania and the rainforests in Queensland over the last six months indicate what we thought were fairly secure and stable environments that were well protected are also in danger as well.

Share Facebook

Twitter

Mail

Whatsapp Tasmanian bushfires, February 12 2019.

Aside from the spectacled flying fox, another species at risk of extinction is the Western ground parrot in south-west Western Australia. The bird was once widely distributed but now numbers less than 150. A single bushfire could wipe them out, according to the Department of Environment.

"It really is selfish of us to cause the extinction of a species that lived so bloody long," Professor Woinarski said.

"We should recognise all species have a right to exist."

"The loss and decline of many parts of our biodiversity is a sign that the continent itself is in ill-health and sooner or later that will come back to bite us."