Australia, bushfires have killed nearly 500 million animals
Environment — di Lorenzo Brenna
Ecologists at the University of Sydney have attempted to quantify the animal toll of the blazes. The estimates are staggering.
Australia, bushfires have killed nearly 500 million animals
Ecologists at the University of Sydney have attempted to quantify the animal toll of the blazes. The estimates are staggering.
Australia's ecosystems, home to an astonishing variety of bizarre and endemic creatures, are being transformed into barren deserts of smouldering ash by the bushfires that have been ravaging the country for months and continue to burn.
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The actual impact of the blazes on forests and wildlife is still unclear, but a group of ecologists at the University of Sydney has attempted to estimate the number of animals killed directly or indirectly by the flames — the figures are staggering.
The scale of the massacre
According to the researchers, the fires that began in September and struck the states of Queensland and New South Wales in particular have killed an estimated 487.5 million animals — birds, reptiles and mammals, including kangaroos, possums, quolls and wombats (the estimate therefore does not account for invertebrates). The fires have burned more than five million hectares across five states, including the ancient forests of New South Wales, causing the emission of approximately 250 million tonnes of CO2.
Australia’s bushland is home to a range of indigenous fauna such as kangaroos, koalas, wallabies and possums. Authorities have no exact figure on how many native animals have been killed in the bushfires but experts say it is likely to be in the millions reut.rs/2F7gnWB
Koala massacre
Among the species hardest hit by the flames is one of the continent's most iconic animals, the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus). In New South Wales alone, an estimated eight thousand koalas have died — nearly a third of the state's population, which numbers around 28,000 and is considered the main stronghold of these arboreal marsupials. Koalas are particularly vulnerable to fires, scientists have explained, because they move slowly and live in eucalyptus trees, which are extremely flammable.
Read also: Koalas are the main victims of the devastating fires in Australia
In addition to injuring and killing many koalas, the fires have charred vast swathes of their territory. "About 30 per cent of their habitat has been destroyed," said Environment Minister Sussan Ley. "We will know more once the fires have calmed down and a proper assessment can be carried out."
Heartbreaking footage of kangaroos fleeing has been captured in Monaro, NSW, as bushfires close in.
For more fire updates: bit.ly/2Qbknvu
For more fire updates: bit.ly/2Qbknvu
Record heat
The outbreak and spread of the fires are being fuelled by unusually high temperatures. In recent weeks, Australia has recorded the highest temperatures ever documented, with an average of 41.9 degrees Celsius. The fires, far more intense and widespread than the seasonal average, have spared not even rainforests, eucalyptus forests, swamps and banana plantations, which under normal climatic conditions would not burn because they are too moist.
Stop to logging
Stand up for nature, a group comprising 13 conservation organisations in New South Wales, has called for the immediate suspension of logging in old-growth forests in New South Wales, at least until the impacts of the bushfires on species and habitats are understood. "The catastrophic effects of the fires are so widespread that allowing further habitat loss would be inconceivable," reads a letter the group sent to the state's premier, Gladys Berejiklian.
The ecological consequences of the fires
As the flames continue to burn, the list of animals killed is set to grow even longer. Estimates have so far been based on calculations of habitat loss; once the fires are extinguished, it will be possible to carry out more precise fieldwork to gain a more detailed picture of the ecological consequences of the blazes. The actual number of animals that have died as a result of the flames — whose tragedy reaches us all too muffled, perhaps softened by the thousands of kilometres that separate us — will, however, likely never be known.