Bushfires in Australia have been raging for the past 2 to 3 months, killing millions of animals and destroying their natural habitat, more than 4 million hectares across 5 states.
Authorities have no exact numbers on how many animals were killed by the massive bushfires, but wildlife experts from Australia believe the numbers are in millions.
Wombats, snakes, birds, koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, possums, and echidnas are some of the animals that have been killed by the bushfires.
But koalas are the ones that got hit the most, with experts estimating around 30 percent of them got wiped out by the fires.
Tracy Burgess, a volunteer at the Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Services, said they are concerned that no animals were coming to them.
During an interview with the Reuters, Tracy said, “We’re not getting that many animals coming into care.”
Tracy added, “So, our concern is that they don’t come into care because they’re not there anymore, basically.”
Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Services (WIRES) is a non-profit group that receives limited government funding. Their group heavily relies on donations from the public.
The group is run with the help of volunteers, who are dedicated to helping to take care of the animals in their own houses.
Tracy is currently taking care of an injured brushtail possum, which had been found in the rural town of Clarence in the World Heritage-listed Blue Mountains region, which is located 100 kilometers away from Sydney.
Tracy wants to take care of and save the possum.
Upon saving the possum, Tracy found out that the small marsupial has a passenger along with her.
Tracy said, “Once we got the pouch open, a tiny little hand came out with claws on it, so, yeah, there’s a pinkie – very little baby unfurred possum.”
She added, “So she’s a ferocious mother who has clearly done her best for her bub.”
According to Ecologists at the University of Sydney, 480 million animals, which include mammals, birds, and reptiles have been killed.
It is believed that 8000 koalas were burnt to death by the raging fires, which started in early September.
Sussan Ley, the Federal Environment Minister of Australia, said 30 percent of the koala population got killed by the fire.
30 percent of their natural habitat got destroyed by the fires.
Talking about the exact numbers, Sussan said, “We’ll know more when the fires have calmed down and a proper assessment can be made.”
Mark Graham an ecologist with the Nature Conservation Council, said koalas do not have the ability to move away from the fires.
Mark said, “The fires have burnt 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.”
Mark added, “We’ve lost such a massive swathe of known koala habitat that I think we can say without any doubt there will be ongoing declines in koala populations from this point forward.”