Most conservation good news is a press release describing an effort. This is a certifying body changing a category, which is a different and much rarer thing.
The IUCN Red List update published July 9 moved the numbat from Endangered to Near Threatened [1].
The population history is the argument. About 300 animals survived in the late 1970s. The current estimate is 2,000 to 3,000 [1].
Professor John Woinarski, who co-chairs the IUCN specialist group covering Australian marsupials, said what the downlisting is for: 'Today's assessments show that long-term, strategic and collaborative conservation effort works' [1].
Two things belong here so the good news is not oversold. The IUCN itself notes the numbat now occupies just 0.04 percent of its original range - the species is recovering inside a fraction of the country it once had [1].
The same update was not all good, either. It confirmed five Australian marsupials newly declared extinct, and carried deteriorating assessments for deep-sea vent molluscs [1]. The Red List now covers 175,909 assessed species, of which 49,505 are threatened [1].
Against that, one animal moved the right way by a full category. It is worth saying out loud how uncommon that is.
