According to the ecologists at the University of Sidney, more than 480 million animals have died in Australia since September. The devastating reports reveal that most of those animals are mammals, but birds and reptiles have also been affected by the catastrophic wildfires.
The so called ‘wildfire season’ is common for Australia, but this time its effects have been totally devastating. Due to extreme heat and wind, it started earlier and it break all the records with New South Wales and Queensland among the most affected areas.
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“Ecologists from the University of Sydney now estimate 480 million mammals, birds and reptiles have been lost since September.” https://t.co/dBKubvZJr7
— Katie Phang (@KatiePhang) January 2, 2020
More than 1,000 homes have been destroyed, hundreds of people evacuated, more than 12 million acres of land burned and what’s even more sadly – nearly half a billion wild animals gone. However, the bad news won’t stop here as the wildfires doesn’t seem to end soon. According to the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, the crisis “will continue to go on until we can get some decent rain that can deal with some of the fires that have been burning for many, many months,” Fox News reports.
Dozens of kangaroos have been spotted hopping through smoky grassland in Bredbo, NSW as nearby bushfires burn through the area #AustralianFires pic.twitter.com/xNP1EuBOEl
— SBS News (@SBSNews) December 31, 2019
“Some things probably won’t come back. It’s nearly half a billion native animals,” Chris Dickman, professor of ecology at the University of Sydney, told Daily Mail Australia. “Almost certainly, a lot of koalas would have been [affected] directly by the flames and probably indirectly by a combination of starvation, being picked off by dogs, even for the ones that survived.”
Unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible for the authorities to do something to stop the wrath of nature. “We’re getting a lot of lessons out of this and it’s just showing how unprepared we are, “Science for Wildlife executive director Dr. Kellie Leigh told news.com. “There’s no procedures or protocols in place — even wildlife carers don’t have protocols for when they can go in after fire.”
h/t: fox13news | news.com.au
