Devastating
images have captured the moment a singed koala appears to mourn the
death of its companion after a wildfire decimated their Kangaroo Island
habitat.
The island, off the coast of South Australia, is a
biodiverse haven for wildlife. It’s sometimes described as the Galapagos
of Australia. Fires destroyed as much as half of the rich habitat there
when they tore through two weeks ago, leaving scores of dead animals in
their wake.
In the image, taken Wednesday, the injured koala sits with its face buried in its chest near a deceased smaller koala.
An
injured Koala sits beside a dead koala on Kangaroo Island before being
rescued on Wednesday. The charred forest floor on Kangaroo Island is
littered with corpses of animals that died when fires swept through two
weeks ago. (Photo: PETER PARKS via Getty Images)
Subsequent
images show rescuers from the Humane Society International Crisis
Response team capturing the surviving marsupial with a towel. Humane
Society Australia CEO Erica Martin said in a statement
that the group was working to deliver emergency truckloads of water and
supplementary feed to keep koalas, kangaroos, wombats and flying foxes
alive.
It has been estimated that more than half of the island’s
50,000 koalas ― the only chlamydia-free population in the country ― may
have died in the blazes. Hundreds of thousands of other animals have
perished, and endangered and critically endangered species native to the
island, such as the glossy black cockatoo and Kangaroo Island dunnart, face real threats of extinction in their range.
Humane
Society International Crisis Response specialist Kelly Donithan
approaches the injured koala on Kangaroo Island. (Photo: PETER PARKS via
Getty Images)
The Humane Society International Crisis Response team rescues the injured koala. (Photo: PETER PARKS via Getty Images)The rescuer pictured, global disaster response expert Kelly Donithan, told One Green Planet that
these were some of the toughest scenes she’d witnessed as an animal
rescuer, saying there were “bodies of charred animals as far as the eye
can see.”
“But as we set out each day on search and rescue, we’re
still finding animals alive, injured, dazed or traumatized, and it’s
such a relief to be able to give them immediate lifesaving assistance.
“We’ve
seen kangaroos with devastating burn injuries and dehydrated koalas
gasping for water. Amidst all this death, every time we find an animal
alive it feels like a miracle.”
Kelly
Donithan holds a baby koala she just rescued on Kangaroo Island. She
said she'd witnessed some of the "toughest scenes I've ever witnessed as
an animal rescuer" during the bushfire response. (Photo: PETER PARKS
via Getty Images)
Kelly Donithan checks an injured koala rescued on Kangaroo Island. (Photo: PETER PARKS via Getty Images)Australia’s
federal government has pledged $50 million to a wildlife recovery fund,
with $25 million going toward wildlife rescues, hospitals and
conservation groups, and the other half set aside for an emergency
intervention fund advised by a panel of experts.
This week, rain
and cooler weather brought a reprieve for firefighters battling other
blazes still burning across Australia, especially in the hardest-hit
state of New South Wales. However, the NSW Rural Fire Service said, it
wasn’t the end of the crisis.
“Although this rain won’t extinguish all fires, it will certainly go a long way towards containment,” it tweeted.
Nationwide, 29 people have died and more than 2,000 homes have been lost this fire season. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.
Related... We Just Lived Through The Hottest Decade On Record In Rare Good News, Australia Says Endangered ‘Dinosaur Trees’ Saved From Devastating Fires Bystander Stops Kangaroo From Drowning Dog: 'If I Wasn't There, That Dog Was Dead' This article originally appeared on HuffPost. https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/koala-mourning-australia-fire-011603287.html
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