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Australia vows to stop extinction crisis

The government in Australia has announced a 10 year plan to put an end to its status as "the mammal extinction capital of the world". Australia's best known native animals will be prioritised- including the koala, Australian sea lion and the rarest marsupial in the world, Gilbert's Potoroo - of which only about 100 remain.

It is the first time a national government has announced a zero extinctions target for a country's plants and animals.聽Rachel Lowry is the Australian Chief Conservation Officer of the World Wide Fund for Nature. So how bad is the problem?

"We are now leading when it comes to the loss of mammal species. More mammals in Australia are becoming extinct in our nation than anywhere else in the world. We're also now listed as a global deforestation hotspot. So we're losing our wildlife, we're losing our wild places and we need to turn that around."

(Photo: Australian sea lion. Credit: Getty Images)

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