This bulbous amphibian is now classified as vulnerable.
Unlike most frogs, the desert rain frog has evolved to need almost no water, burying itself deep in sand to avoid the sun and emerging only at night.
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It also faces pressure from the exotic pet trade, fueled by a viral video of its squeaking distress call.
Despite these threats, the IUCN emphasizes that targeted conservation can save species.
The numbat, a striped, termite-eating marsupial from Australia, has moved from endangered to near threatened thanks to decades of protection from feral cats and foxes.
Numbers rebounded from a low of about 300 in the late 1970s to between 2,000 and 3,000 today.
Conservation measures included baiting, predator-proof fencing, captive breeding at Perth Zoo, and translocations, establishing at least five self-sustaining populations.
“The [numbat] assessment shows that long-term conservation effort works; without it, invasive cats and foxes will continue to drive Australia’s small marsupials and native rodents to extinction,” said Prof John Woinarski, co-chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission group on Australasian marsupials and monotremes.
He added that continued management is vital to maintain the numbat’s unique evolutionary line and its role in healthy ecosystems, as its digging for termites increases rain penetration into the soil.
In contrast, the Red List confirmed five other Australian marsupials as extinct, with no sightings for at least 60 years: the crest-tailed, southern, northern, and little mulgaras, and the little bettong.
Experts believe feral cats and foxes drove their extinction, contributing to more than 40 modern mammal extinctions in Australia.
The IUCN also updated the status of emperor penguins, declaring them officially in danger of extinction due to mass drowning of chicks as sea ice melts from climate change.
“Life on Earth has adapted to survive in the most hostile and unusual habitats [but] as pressures on biodiversity mount across the planet, even the creatures with the most ingenious survival strategies are under threat,” said Dr Grethel Aguilar, IUCN Director General.
“But there is a clear path out of the biodiversity crisis: nature conservation works.”
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The complete IUCN Red List now includes 175,909 species, of which 49,505 are formally threatened with extinction.
