Aim: After environmental disasters, species with large population losses may need urgent protection to prevent extinction and support recovery. Following the 2019-2020 Australian megafires, we estimated population losses and recovery in fire-affected fauna, to inform conservation status assessments and management.Location: Temperate and subtropical Australia. Time period: 2019-2030 and beyond.Major taxa: Australian terrestrial and freshwater vertebrates; one invertebrate group. Methods:From > 1,050 fire-affected taxa, we selected 173 whose distributions substantially overlapped the fire extent. We estimated the proportion of each taxon's distribution affected by fires, using fire severity and aquatic impact mapping, and new distribution mapping. Using expert elicitation informed by evidence of responses to previous wildfires, we estimated local population responses to fires of varying severity. We combined the spatial and elicitation data to estimate overall population loss and recovery trajectories, and thus indicate potential eligibility for listing as threatened, or uplisting, under Australian legislation. Results:We estimate that the 2019-2020 Australian megafires caused, or contributed to, population declines that make 70-82 taxa eligible for listing as threatened;

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Population declines and range contractions among Australian frogs that commenced in the early 1980s continue in some species that were once widespread. The generality of this pattern has been difficult to discern, especially for those species that are encountered rarely because they have restricted periods of calling activity with poorly defined habitat preferences, and are not common. Several lines of evidence indicate that Litoria littlejohni is such a species. This frog was once known from mid-eastern New South Wales to eastern Victoria, and evidence from wildlife atlas databases and targeted searches indicate that it has declined in large portions of its former range, leaving several populations that are isolated, in some cases restricted in distribution, and of small size. We investigated the relationships among populations using mitochondrial ND4 nucleotide sequences and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from the nuclear genome. We found that northern and southern populations form two highly divergent genetic groups whose distributions abut at the southern margin of the Sydney Basin Bioregion and these genetic groups also show divergence in morphology and male advertisement calls. Here we describe the populations to the south of the Sydney Basin Bioregion as a new species and provide information on its distribution and ecology. In light of the apparent isolation and small size of known populations of the new species and the consequent restriction of the range of L. littlejohni, we assessed the conservation status of both species.

The six species of mountain frogs (Philoria: Limnodynastidae: Anura) are endemic to south-eastern Australia. Five species occur in headwater systems in mountainous north-eastern New South Wales (NSW) and south-eastern Queensland (Qld), centred on the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area. A previous molecular genetic analysis identified divergent genetic lineages in the central and western McPherson Ranges region of Qld and NSW, but sampling was inadequate to test the species status of these lineages. With more comprehensive geographic sampling and examination of the nuclear genome using SNP analysis, we show that an undescribed species, P. knowlesi sp. nov., occurs in the central and western McPherson Ranges (Levers Plateau and Mount Barney complex). The new species is not phylogenetically closely related to P. loveridgei in the nuclear data but is related to one of two divergent lineages within P. loveridgei in the mtDNA data. We postulate that the discordance between the nuclear and mtDNA outcomes is due to ancient introgression of the mtDNA genome from P. loveridgei into the new species. Male advertisement calls and multivariate morphological analyses do not reliably distinguish P. knowlesi sp. nov. from any of the Philoria species in northeast NSW and southeast Qld. The genetic comparisons also enable us to define further the distributions of P. loveridgei and P. kundagungan. Samples from the Lamington Plateau, Springbrook Plateau, Wollumbin (Mt Warning National Park), and the Nightcap Range, are all P. loveridgei, and its distribution is now defined as the eastern McPherson Ranges and Tweed caldera. Philoria kundagungan is distributed from the Mistake Mountains in south-eastern Qld to the Tooloom Scrub on the Koreelah Range, southwest of Woodenbong, in NSW, with two subpopulations identified by SNP analysis. We therefore assessed the IUCN threat category of P. loveridgei and P. kundagungan and undertook new assessments for each of its two subpopulations and for the new taxon P. knowlesi sp. nov., using IUCN Red List criteria. Philoria loveridgei, P. kundagungan (entire range and northern subpopulation separately) and P. knowlesi sp. nov. each meet criteria for “Endangered” (EN B2(a)(b)[i, iii]). The southern subpopulation of P. kundagungan, in the Koreelah Range, meets criteria for “Critically Endangered” (CE B2(a)(b)[i, iii]). These taxa are all highly threatened due to the small number of known locations, the restricted nature of their breeding habitat, and direct and indirect threats from climate change, and the potential impact of the amphibian disease chytridiomycosis. Feral pigs are an emerging threat, with significant impacts now observed in Philoria breeding habitat in the Mistake Mountains.