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Australia fires – Dozens of koalas lie injured in washing baskets on Kangaroo Island as species faces being wiped out
HEARTBREAKING images show dozens of badly burned koalas at a makeshift animal hospital, lined in a row of washing baskets after their homes were destroyed by a horrendous blaze.
Injured in bushfires that ravaged wildlife haven Kangaroo Island in South Australia, the scorched animals have been arriving at the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park in cat carriers and washing baskets, or clinging to their rescuers.
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There are so many of the injured species requiring urgent treatment that carers don’t have time to give them names – they are simply referred to by a number.
Among them is Koala Number 64, who was brought in with burns to all four of his paws.
Stretched out on a surgical table in a bustling tent, he has been sedated so the wounds can be examined and treated.
“It’s healing nicely,” said veterinarian Peter Hutchison, who explained the koala had benefited from a few days of treatment.
Sadly, not all rescued koalas have been so lucky.
Many are found so badly injured by the flames they need to be euthanised.
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report Steven Selwood, South Australia Veterinary Emergency Management team leader at the hospital, claimed 46,000 koalas were thought to be on the island before this year’s bushfires.
It is estimated as few as 9,000 remain, after more than 20 million acres of land were turned into scorched earth by the blazes.
Mr Selwood said: “The fires here were particularly ferocious and fast-moving so we’re seeing a lot less injured wildlife than in other fires.”
“A lot of the wildlife was incinerated.”
It comes as Australian Environment Minister Sussan Ley said the country’s koala population had taken an “extraordinary hit” as a result of bushfires that have raged for months, suggesting they could be listed as “endangered” for the first time.
The wildfires are thought to have killed off a third of Australia's Koala population - whose numbers were already dangerously low before the flames.
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Kangaroo Island is the only place in Australia where the population is entirely free of chlamydia — a sexually transmitted infection also found in humans that is fatal to koalas.
That has made them a key “insurance population” for the future of the species — and even more crucial now that large numbers have died in bushfires on the Australian mainland.
This widespread destruction has left rescuers with a tricky proposition — what to do with the animals once they have recovered.
For now, that issue is on the back burner as teams of vets work overtime to save as many as possible.
Experts now fear a billion animals have perished in the bushfire crisis.
The Australian government have committed £27m to an emergency wildlife recovery programme saying the bushfires threaten several species.
"This has been an ecological disaster, a disaster that is still unfolding," said the country's Treasurer Joshua Frydenberg as he visited the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital.
Mr Frydenberg said the "iconic" koala would be a focus of national government funding, adding that the full extent of the damage would not be known until the fires are out - something experts say could be months away.
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Woman endangers herself to rescue scorched koala from Australian bushfire
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