According to the estimations, nearly half a billion animals, including 8,000 koalas, have died in recent bushfires that have been sweeping over Australia.
As the University of Sydney ecologists suggested, an estimate of 480 million animals, including reptiles, birds, and mammals, have died due to raging fires in recent months.
Included in the death toll are also thousands of koalas that are thought to have been either burned or starved and dehydrated to death following the loss of their natural habitat.
According to the University of Sydney ecologists, the loss of millions of animals represents a major setback for Australian wildlife.
Previously, Mark Graham of the Nature Conservation Council addressed the parliament to warn that the exact number of koalas killed in fires will probably never be established.
“The fires have burned so hot and so fast that there has been significant mortality of animals in the trees, but there is such a big area now that is still on fire and still burning that we will probably never find the bodies,” he said.
In addition to Graham, Dr. Kellie Leigh of Science for Wildlife has spoken out and suggested that the crisis is a reflection of how “unprepared we are.”
“We’re getting a lot of lessons out of this and it’s just showing how unprepared we are. There’s no procedures or protocols in place – even wildlife carers don’t have protocols for when they can go in after fire,” she said.
Besides millions of animals getting burned in the fires, there are also plenty of rescue creatures that can’t be returned to their natural environment.
As experts suggested according to the Sydney Morning Herald, there is a major lack of food and water in regions affected by the fires.
“Mothers are abandoning babies at two weeks after birth because there is no food for them. We’ve picked them up out of local colonies,” Jenny Packwood of the Wildlife Rescue South Coast said.
“Last week we had 300 come in and we’ve been flat out feeding since then. We had to fly some of them to the North Coast, to carer groups up there.”
What are your thoughts on this news? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to SHARE this post with your family and friends and follow us on Facebook for more news and stories!
Replaced!