Introduction

This document constitutes the National Recovery Plan for the Australian Painted Snipe. The plan considers the conservation requirements of the species across its range and identifies the actions to be taken to ensure the species’ long-term viability in the wild, and the parties that will undertake those actions. This Recovery Plan is the first national plan to be developed for the Australian Painted Snipe.

The Australian Painted Snipe was listed as Endangered under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cwlth) (EPBC Act) in May 2013. At the time of listing the species met the criteria for listing as Endangered as it was inferred to have undergone a severe decline in the number of mature individuals in excess of 50 per cent over three generations (~26 years) associated with wetland loss and degradation (Garnett et al. 2011). Population estimates for Australian Painted Snipe have varied between 1,500 and 5,000 up to 2010 (Watkins 1993; Garnett and Crowley 2000). In 2020, the population was estimated to be 340 (range 270–410) mature individuals following declines in the last five years (2015–2020), although with very low certainty given the biology of the species (Rogers et al. 2021). There has been no change in the population trajectory since 2011 and the species continues to meet the Endangered category (Rogers et al. 2021).

Accompanying Species Profile and Threats Database (SPRAT) pages provide additional background information on the biology, population status and threats to the Australian Painted Snipe. SPRAT pages are available from: http://www.environment.gov.au/cgibin/ sprat/public/sprat.pl.