Australia and New Zealand can be thought of as arks. For tens of millions of years they have drifted, isolated, across the surface of the Earth, carrying unique plants and animals. Indeed it is the isolation of their wildlife that gives these southern lands their uniqueness, as well as inherent vulnerability. Long separated, many of their creatures are naive to the defences, competitive techniques or hunting tactics of wildlife introduced from elsewhere. Sadly, it’s clear that much of the wildlife of these southern lands is in crisis. As the new epoch dominated by human destruction, the anthropocene, continues to bite, both solutions and action are needed to slow down the damage.

The issues facing wildlife on the lands and surrounding waters of Australia and New Zealand are immense, and while it’s impossible to cover all threats in a single book, the editors have selected comment from leading researchers on key threats including introduced plants and animals, pollution, habitat fragmentation and climate change. To evaluate these threats, and prioritise our response to them, we need up-to-date information on areas currently protected from human activity and the conservation status of particular groups. Austral Ark serves this purpose and one can hope that this information will raise awareness, inspire action and, perhaps with excessive optimism, that these descriptions on the state of the wildlife will provide a reference point in the future that shows how bad things were in the early twenty-first century.