Nearly 500 million animals killed in Australia bushfires since September 2019 – 30 percent of koalas incinerated by “unfightable” fires in New South Wales – Thousands of fire-injured sheep shot on Kangaroo Island
By Marnie O’Neill
1 January 2020
(News.com.au) – There are concerns that entire species of plants and animals may have been wiped out by bushfires following estimations that 480 million animals may die as a result of the crisis.
Ecologists from the University of Sydney estimate almost half a billion mammals, birds and reptiles may have been lost since September.
They also say the figure may increase following the devastating fires which have ripped through Victoria and the NSW South Coast over the past couple of days, leaving several people dead or unaccounted for, razing scores of homes and leaving thousands stranded.
The estimation includes animals killed in the fires, but also through loss of habitat.
According to a statement from Sydney University, the co-author of the report, Professor Chris Dickman, a professor in Terrestrial Ecology, based the calculations on a 2007 report for the the World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) on the impacts of Land Clearing on Australia Wildlife in NSW.
The university indicated that although these were estimates and there was no way of counting the actual toll, the estimations were obtained from published studies of mammals in NSW and reports of similar habitats in other parts of Australia.
Fires have been raging across NSW and Victoria, with millions of hectares of national park already burnt.
Harrowing scenes of kangaroos fleeing walls of fire, charred bodies of koalas and cockatoos falling dead out of trees have horrified the world as it tries to take in the scale of the unfolding disaster.
Koalas have been among the hardest hit of Australia’s native animals because they are slow moving and only eat leaves from the eucalyptus tree, which are filled with oil, making them highly flammable.
Up to 8000 — a third of the entire koala population of the NSW mid-north coast — are believed to have been killed in less than four months.
There are significant koala populations in others states affected by fire — such as Victoria and South Australia — but no figures yet on how many have been lost.
“The fires have burned 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,” Nature Conservation Council ecologist Mark Graham told parliament.
Some 34 species and subspecies of native mammals have become extinct in Australia over the last 200 years, the highest rate of loss for any region in the world.
Professor Chris Dickman, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science
“(Koalas) really have no capacity to move fast enough to get away” as the flames jumped from treetop to treetop, he said.
Mr Graham was addressing the NSW upper house inquiry, which last month held an urgent hearing into the state’s koala population in the wake of the wake of “unprecedented” destruction.
Stand Up for Nature, an alliance of 13 organisations, is calling for an immediate halt on logging of native forests in NSW until the impacts of the catastrophic bushfires on species and habitat are understood.
“The impact on many species has been extreme and is ongoing. The full scale of wildlife losses will probably never be known, but they will surely number in the millions,” it warned in a letter to NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. [more]
Huge loss of animal and plant life expected due to bushfires
Kangaroo Island fires: Farmers shoot injured sheep after “unfightable” bushfire ravages SA island
By Ben Butler
5 January 2020
(The Guardian) – Farmers on Kangaroo Island were shooting fire-injured sheep on Sunday as the small community prepared for more dangerous days ahead when hot weather returns in the middle of the week.
Firefighters on the island have been battling fires since before Christmas that blazed out of control after extreme weather on Friday.
The fires, which are still burning, started at the western end of the 160km-long island, and have burned about a third of it, killing two people and devastating the island’s two main industries, tourism and farming.
The former pilot Dick Lang and his son, Clayton Lang, were killed when fire overran their car on Friday.
Ferries have been running almost around the clock to evacuate thousands of tourists back to the South Australian mainland, the former mayor Jayne Bates said. […]
“A lot of our blokes have gone out today to destroy injured sheep – you’re talking thousands,” she said.
“They’re digging pits.” […]
The fires were “the worst we’ve ever had”, she said.
“We had a big one in 2007 but not to this extent. […]
“It was unfightable,” Bates said of the fire.
“Is this our new normal? That’s the fear.” [more]
Kangaroo Island fires: Farmers shoot injured sheep after ‘unfightable’ bushfire ravages SA island
Australia’s environment minister says up to 30 percent of koalas killed in NSW mid-north coast fires
By Naaman Zhou
26 December 2019
(The Guardian) – Australia’s environment minister has said up to 30 percent of koalas on the New South Wales mid-north coast may have been killed in the country’s ongoing bushfire crisis.
Nationally, more than 5m hectares have been burned in an unprecedented bushfire season that has also killed nine people. Some 3.4m hectares have been burnt in NSW alone.
The state’s mid-north coast is home to a significant number of Australia’s koalas, with an estimated population between 15,000 to 28,000.
On Friday, the federal environment minister, Sussan Ley, said up to 30% of the koalas in the region had been killed, because “up to 30% of their habitat has been destroyed”.
“We’ll know more when the fires are calmed down and a proper assessment can be made,” she told the ABC’s AM radio program.
Fires tore through the mid-north coast in November, and further emergency-level blazes have since flared in NSW near Sydney, on the NSW south coast, in South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia.
However, early reports that koalas were “functionally extinct” in Australia were deemed to be incorrect and an exaggeration, though the species is under threat.
In December, a NSW government inquiry was told that thousands of koalas had been killed, and the fires were so large “we will probably never find the bodies”.
In the Adelaide Hills in SA, volunteer firefighters shared images of koalas rescued from the fires – including six in one house, and two koalas who came out of the bush looking for help. […]
Before this year’s bushfire crisis, koala populations in NSW and Queensland had already dropped by 42% between 1990 and 2010, according to the federal threatened species scientific committee.
James Tremain, a spokesman for the NSW Nature Conservation Council, told Guardian Australia in November 2019 that koala decline has been happening “slowly and silently”.
“Koala numbers have plunged over the past 20 years,” he said. “We are directly destroying thousands of hectares of their forests through clearing for agriculture and logging for timber. But we are also shrinking available habitat indirectly as a result of climate change.” [more]
Australia’s environment minister says up to 30% of koalas killed in NSW mid-north coast fires
