Experts Suggest Around 3 Billion Animals Were Affected By The Bushfires In Australia
Around 3 billion animals were killed or displaced by the wildfires that had happened in Australia between 2019 and 2020.
The Australian wildfires were one of the worst wildlife disasters in modern history.
The study was conducted by a number of scientists from a number of universities in Australia.
They said that around 143 million mammals, 2.46 billion reptiles, 180 million birds, and 51 million frogs were killed or displaced in the wildfires that happened in Australia in a span of less than 1 year.
Reports did not suggest the exact number of animals that died because of the fires, but prospects for those that escaped the flames were not that great, said the researchers.
This is because of the lack of food, shelter, and protection from predators, said Chris Dickman, one of its authors.
According to official data, more than 115,000 square kilometers of drought-stricken bushland and forest across the country were destroyed in the fires.
30 people were killed and thousands of houses were destroyed by the wildfires that started in the late 2019 and ended in early 2020.
The wildfire was the most prolonged bushfire season in modern Australian history.
A study that was carried out in January this year initially estimated that the fires had killed around 1 billion animals in the hardest-hit eastern states of New South Wales and Victoria.
However, the survey that was published by Lily van Eeden, a lead scientist from the University of University.
Eeden is the first to cover fire zones across the continent.