"Eyes peeled," comes the order from the front passenger seat.
asserted
order → peel → seat
Obediently, we scan the ends and tops of logs, looking between low scrub and patches of vivid wildflowers for a flash of stripes or a dart of movement.
asserted
we → scan → movement
Eluding us is the numbat, a rare Australian marsupial which could be the love-child of a chipmunk and an anteater.
uncertain
which → elude → chipmunk
Numbats were once populous across the bottom half of the continent, but Dryandra Woodland – in the south-western corner of Australia – is one of the few places they remain.
asserted
they → remain → places
As we slowly roll along bush tracks, researchers explain how this annual trip helps plot the species' survival.
asserted
trip → roll → survival
Classified as endangered until this month, numbats have been bouncing back.
asserted
numbats → classify → month
This team's efforts have seen them scratched off the international red list of threatened species - a rare glimmer of hope in a country facing an extinction emergency.
asserted
them → see → emergency
This part of Australia is the front line of that crisis: a last stand for many species driven to the brink by feral pests, disease, urban development, habitat destruction and climate change.
asserted
part → drive → pests
Winging over our car at one point is the endangered Carnaby's cockatoo.
asserted
cockatoo → wing → point
On an island just off the coast is one of the last surviving pockets of the world's rarest marsupial, the Gilbert's potoroo.
asserted
one → survive → marsupial
Diving in the sapphire waters around it is the increasingly scarce Australian sea lion.
asserted
lion → dive → it
Australia has long been celebrated as a nature haven, home to some of the world's most unique plant and animal species.
asserted
Australia → celebrate → species
More than 80% cannot be found anywhere else.
asserted
% → find → ?
But it has arguably become the extinction capital of the world, losing roughly four species every decade - and the decline is only worsening.
asserted
decline → become → species
Dedicated volunteers and under-funded conservationists have been slowing the army of increasing threats, but experts fear that without urgent action and political courage, the biodiversity Australia says it loves is headed for a bloodbath.
asserted
it → dedicate → bloodbath
"It's not even a case of imagining it, it's happening in front of our own eyes," Professor Euan Ritchie tells the BBC.
asserted
Ritchie → imagine → BBC
The many threats driving extinction
If spotting a rare creature in the wild wasn't challenging enough, the numbat is a squirrel-sized camouflage connoisseur, explains Dr Tony Friend, the godfather of conservation in the state of Western Australia.
asserted
Friend → drive → Australia
"They just slept in today," jokes Rob McLean, president of the Numbat Taskforce, a volunteer group which makes a lot of Tony's thinly-resourced work possible.
asserted
lot → sleep → work
For two weeks each spring, as the young start venturing from their burrows, this team drives a daily circuit and records every numbat spotted.
asserted
team → venture → numbat
They log GPS coordinates, measure the distance to the road, and use a complicated equation to estimate the density of the animals in these woods and, from that, broader population health.
asserted
They → log → that
One person sits in concentrated silence at each window, another perched in the back of the pick-up truck, ducking for the occasional limb branching from trees which rise around us.
asserted
which → sit → us
Through the trunks, we get the occasional glimpse of the razed farmland which tightly fences this pocket of protected woodland.
asserted
which → get → woodland
On the side of one trail is a machine which detects and sprays feral cats and foxes with poison, another reminder of the perils numbats face.
asserted
numbats → detect → perils
"This year's been a bit of a feast," Rob admits.
asserted
Rob → admit → feast
For hours on end, we cruise around, seeing parrots, wallabies, a goanna and a couple of echidnas - but no numbats.
asserted
we → cruise → echidnas
Tony arrived at Dryandra back in the 80s to find a numbat population fewer than 50.
asserted
Tony → arrive → population
Many of the culprits then were the same as those still driving extinctions across the nation today.
asserted
Many → drive → nation
Swathes of critical habitat are being cleared for development or industries like farming, mining and timber.
asserted
Swathes → clear → farming
Leaving a trail of destruction in their wake are introduced pests: fire ants, cane toads, rabbits, foxes, feral cats.
asserted
pests → leave → wake
Invasive weeds like lantana are choking the Australian bush, chlamydia has sent koalas to the edge of existence across much of the country, while the skin-eating chytrid fungus has caused seven frog extinctions here and counting.
asserted
fungus → choke → extinctions
The changing climate is creating unliveable conditions for some species, like native flying foxes which are dropping out of trees in their thousands due to extreme temperatures.
asserted
which → change → temperatures
For others it is eliminating their food or their homes.
asserted
it → eliminate → food
Climate change is also driving natural disasters which fry and drown both plants and animals with now frightening regularity.
asserted
which → drive → regularity
The infamous Black Summer bushfires of 2019-20, for example, killed an estimated three billion animals.
asserted
bushfires → kill → animals
The successive years of record-breaking flooding which followed were so widespread it's impossible to estimate the impact on wildlife.
asserted
it → break → wildlife
Many species once abundant across the continent are now isolated to increasingly small and disjointed patches, each impact compounding and leaving them more vulnerable to the next.
asserted
impact → isolate → next
As a young numbat scoffs his breakfast – custard with "termite sprinkles" – at Perth Zoo, a keeper explains how this stud's upcoming release at Dryandra will help boost genetic diversity.
"When you get that feedback: your babies have got babies, it's very satisfying," Vicki Power says.
asserted
Power → scoff → babies
Breeding programmes like this have also made setting up additional populations of an array of threatened species possible.
But many cannot survive in the true wild, where large-scale predator control remains an endless battle, and are instead sent to fenced nature reserves, themselves high-maintenance undertakings facing problems like in-breeding and overpopulation.
asserted
control → make → breeding
Habitat protection or restoration projects have been ramping up, but they are not keeping pace with destruction, particularly in the most critical areas.
asserted
they → ramp → areas
Scientists are also trying to fight disease, though that's an expensive and laborious endeavour, which for most species buys only a little more time.
asserted
which → try → time
…and 65 more, not listed.
