Mammals as Leaves

Introduction

Australia’s threatened mammals are often described through numbers: species counts, conservation categories, extinction statistics.  Mammals as Leaves translates Australia’s threatened mammal data into a field of gum-leaf forms. Each leaf represents a broad mammal grouping, and each line within a leaf represents one threatened species.

The image is both a summary and a memorial. Some leaves are dense with vulnerable and endangered species; others are visibly thinned by extinction. Together, they suggest a fragile botanical field of Australian mammal life. 

How to read the infographic

Each leaf represents one mammal grouping. Each line within a leaf represents one threatened mammal species. Line style shows conservation status:

• light dotted = Extinct

• round-dotted = Critically Endangered

• dashed = Endangered

• solid = Vulnerable

 The leaf forms are not biological diagrams. They are a visual structure for comparing species counts and conservation status across groups.

Why mammals as leaves?

I chose gum leaves as they are distinctly Australian, familiar, and suited to this dataset (gum trees provide shelter and food to many mammal species). The metaphor is intentionally gentle. Rather than presenting threatened species as a conventional chart, the infographic asks the viewer to read biodiversity loss through a living form, something  delicate and easily scattered.

Why these groupings?

The species are arranged into broad, reader-friendly groupings to make the dataset legible at a glance rather than a strict formal taxonomy. Some groupings are immediately familiar, such as rodents, bats, and kangaroos & wallabies. Others gather related mammals into broader categories, such as possums & gliders or bettongs & potoroos.

Groupings shown in the infographic

Rodents — 33 species

Native rats and mice form the largest mammal grouping in the infographic.

Kangaroos & wallabies — 28 species

Threatened macropods, including smaller wallabies and related hopping marsupials whose survival is tied to intact grasslands, woodlands, and shrublands.

Carnivorous marsupials — 22 species

Small to medium-sized marsupial predators, including quolls, dunnarts, antechinus, the Tasmanian devil, numbat, and related species. Their leaf is notable for its heavy concentration of endangered species.

Bandicoots & bilbies — 16 species

Digging marsupials once widespread across Australian landscapes, several of which are extinct or now persist in greatly reduced ranges.

Bats — 15 species

Insect-eating and nectar-feeding species that depend on roost sites, forests, caves, and complex habitat networks. Their conservation stories are often less visible than those of larger mammals.

Bettongs & potoroos — 15 species

Small hopping marsupials and ecosystem engineers, known for digging and dispersing fungi and seeds.

Possums & gliders — 10 species

Arboreal mammals that rely on forest and woodland structure, including tree hollows and connected canopy habitat.

Whales, dolphins & seals — 9 species

Marine mammals included as a reminder that threatened Australian fauna extends beyond land.

Other distinctive mammals — 4 species

A small grouping for mammals that site outside the larger visual clusters, including echidna, koala, wombat, and Christmas Island shrew.

What the infographic reveals

The largest threatened mammal groupings are rodents, kangaroos and wallabies, and carnivorous marsupials. Extinct species are especially visible in rodents, bandicoots and bilbies, and bettongs and potoroos. Carnivorous marsupials show a heavy burden of endangered species.

Seen together, the leaves show that threatened mammals are not a single conservation story. Different branches of mammal life are under pressure in different ways.

Data note

This infographic is based on the EPBC Act threatened fauna list, reorganised into broad visual groupings for the Shapes of Survival series. Species counts reflect the dataset used at the time the artwork was created.

The visual groupings are designed for communication and comparison. They are not intended to replace formal taxonomic classification.

Series note

Mammals as Leaves is part of Shapes of Survival, a visual series that transforms threatened species data into organic forms.