NewSouth Publishing is thrilled to announce the acquisition of world rights to The Vanishing Wild: Australian Wildlife and the Fight Against Extinction, via literary agent Martin Shaw, a powerful and poignant new book by award-winning science writer Justine E. Hausheer.
Australia accounts for just 5 per cent of the world’s landmass, yet an astonishing 85 per cent of its plants, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians are found nowhere else on Earth. This extraordinary biodiversity is under siege. Nearly 2,000 species are listed as threatened under Australian federal legislation, and almost 100 endemic species have gone extinct since European colonisation. Australia has lost more biodiversity than any other developed nation in the past 200 years.
In The Vanishing Wild, Hausheer joins scientists on the front lines of conservation. From eavesdropping on elusive night parrots to using fishing rods to catch tiny lizards and following dogs trained to sniff out koala scat, she captures the absurd, hilarious, frustrating, and deeply moving work of saving species on the brink.
This book has a shocking story to tell us about our wildlife under threat. But Justine Hausheer has written a book that is filled with life, as she perfectly captures these incredible native animals and the ingenuity and care of the scientists who dedicate their lives to them.'
Science journalist Justine E. Hausheer travels across the continent to meet some of these incredible native animals – and the innovative scientists who are working to give them a better future. She encounters the pygmy possums who live in high in the Snowy Mountains, hears the booming calls of bitterns from their adopted home in the Riverina’s rice fields, crouches after dark in spinifex grasslands of far western Queensland listening for the elusive night parrot, and meets the adorable fat-tailed dunnarts who might hold the answers to reviving the Tasmanian tiger.
About the author
Justine E. Hausheer brings a decade of experience as a science writer for The Nature Conservancy, a global conservation NGO operating in over 75 countries. As managing editor of Cool Green Science, she reaches more than one million readers annually with stories that bring scientific research to life. Her work has earned multiple accolades from the Outdoor Writers Association of America and has been featured in the Best Australian Science Writing anthology. She lives on the Sunshine Coast.
Hausheer holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Princeton University and a master’s degree in science, health, and environmental journalism from New York University.
The Vanishing Wild will be published by NewSouth Publishing in May 2026, and promises to be an essential read for anyone passionate about wildlife, conservation, and the future of Australia’s natural heritage.
