Numbers of some of Australia’s rarest animals have fallen by more than 70 per cent in the past half a decade, a scathing global report has found, as beloved animals such as tigers and southern African elephants begin to bounce back. The World Wildlife Fund’s Living Planet Report 2026, which surveyed population trends among 5790 species, found steep falls in the number of gentoo penguins on Macquarie Island, as well as the lemuroid and green ringtail possums in Australia‘s north.

WWF warned the species, many of which are close to becoming threatened, faced habitat loss, overexploitation, climate change, and population decline – driven, advocates said, by “broader systemic failures across the food, energy, and finance systems”. However, the WWF report also found half of the populations surveyed worldwide were stable or increasing in size, with the size of the downward trends dragging the average. Those included the overfished bluefin tuna – the population of which in the Pacific fell to as low as two per cent of unfinished levels – species of tiger, and southern African elephants – which, while remaining endangered, had increased in population in some locations.

Humpback whales, once subject of whaling, had skyrocketed since the ‘60s from 200-500 animals to as many as 60,000, including in Hervey Bay in southern Queensland. WWF Australia chief executive Dermot O’Gorman said while nature was “under pressure … the lesson for our generation is clear”. “We cannot solve today’s challenges with the same scarcity mindset that helped create them,” he said.

Mr O’Gorman said success found in the report should “give us confidence”. “That at a time when many people are anxious about the future, the answer is not to retreat into fear. Now is the time to choose hope, ambition and action,” he said.

“We know what is driving nature loss, we know much of what works, and we have today all the solutions at hand to build regenerative food, energy and finance systems that work for both people and nature.”To continue conservation successes, industries and systems “need to be transformed”, WWF International director general Kirsten Schuijt said. “Progress is already underway,” she said. “Not everywhere, and not yet at the scale required, but enough to demonstrate that change is possible.” 50 per cent penguin decline University of Tasmania academic Penny Pascoe said the rate of decline among gentoo penguins on Macquarie Island, an overseas Australia territory, had slowed slightly in recent years, but that “the trend is still negative”.

“Macquarie Island is the only breeding area for gentoo penguins in the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean, and one of just two breeding sites within Australian territories … so the decline we are seeing on Macquarie is a big concern for the species in this region and for Australia,” Dr Pascoe said.

“We still don’t know the cause, but additional tracking and dietary research is being done to increase our understanding of potential drivers. “More still needs to be done however, particularly with the additional threats the population is now facing from the arrival of (bird flu).” James Cook University ecologist Alejandro de la Fuente said populations of lemuroid and green ringtail possums had declined by as much as 70 per cent across Australia’s Wet Tropics since the ‘90s. “At the warmer, lower edges of the mountains, populations haven’t just declined, they’ve vanished,” Dr de la Fuente said. “The surprise was that two very similar possums, living in the same forests, are declining due to different processes, both driven by climate change. “When heat stress lasts more than about five hours without access to water, green ringtail possums overheat and dehydrate, and survival drops. When nights are too hot, lemuroid ringtail possums can’t forage safely.” Dr de la Fuente said “the window is narrow” to help protect the possums “still hanging on”, including by providing water in the late-dry season. “We can buy these species time, but we can’t buy them a new climate,” he said. “These are ancient, irreplaceable animals, found nowhere else on Earth, and we’re the last generation with a chance to keep them.”