The bilby is evaluated as “Vulnerable” on the IUCN Red List because it is patchily distributed with a small area of occupancy, has a population size less than 10,000, and is suffering ongoing declining population trends.
The bilby is evaluated as Vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species because, although it still has a large extent of occurrence (EOO), it is patchily distributed and has a small area of occupancy (AOO), the population size is estimated to be fewer than 10,000 mature individuals, and it suffers from an ongoing decline estimated to exceed 10% over the last 3 generations of 12 years that is likely to continue.
Five translocations, one to an island and four to mainland islands, while providing valuable insurance against extinction, may not yet fully offset the continuing decline in the wild. Additionally, a taxon may be moved from a category of higher threat to a category of lower threat if none of the criteria of the higher category has been met for five years or more and even if the growth in numbers in translocated subpopulations offsets the decline in the wild, this has not been the case for more than five years for the bilby.
Bilbies are listed as Endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species List, and are on Appendix I of CITES. In Australian territories, bilbies are extinct in Queensland, threatened in the Northern Territory, vulnerable in Western Australia, endangered in South Australia, and presumed extinct in New South Wales.
• Image | ©️ Sean Riley, Some Rights Reserved, (CC BY 2.0)
• Sources | (Burbidge & Woinarski, 2016; Commonwealth of Australia, 2010, 2015; Environment Australia, 2004; Hintze, 2002; Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory, 1998; Pavey, 2006; The Wikimedia Foundation, 2021)
