Study says Australia's bushfires harmed 3 billion animals
July 28, 2020
A new survey has found that 3 billion animals were impacted by Australia's recent devastating bushfire season, with reptiles hardest hit. Conservationists say it's "one of the worst wildlife disasters in modern history."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/D. Mariuz
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Unprecedented bushfires that ravaged Australia in 2019 and 2020 killed or displaced almost 3 billion animals, according to an interim report released Tuesday.
Compiled by scientists from several Australian universities, the survey said the blazes impacted an estimated 143 million mammals, 2.46 billion reptiles, 180 million birds and 51 million frogs.
The report, commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), did not specify how many animals may have died. But the prospects for those that escaped the fires "were probably not great" because they lost food sources, native habitat and shelter from predators, report co-author Chris Dickman said.
The bushfires that swept across Australia between late 2019 and early 2020 scorched 115,000 square kilometers (44,000 square miles) of bush and forest, killing 30 people and destroying thousands of homes. It was one of the worst bushfire seasons on record.
Experts say prolonged drought and climate change will likely make such events longer lasting and more frequent.
'Shocking' findings
A previous study released in January had estimated that around 1 billion animals perished in the hardest-hit states of Victoria and New South Wales in eastern Australia. But the survey published Tuesday was the first to assess fire zones across the entire country, lead scientist Lily van Eeden of the University of Sydney said.
The survey's results are preliminary, with a full report to be released next month, but scientists said the estimate of 3 billion animals affected was unlikely to change.
Bushfires ravage Australia
Australia is grappling with its worst bushfire season to date. The nation has been forced to reckon with a rising death toll, mass evacuations and suffering animal populations.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Davey
Widespread devastation
Massive bushfires have devastated Australia as the blazes continue to rage across the country. Since the start of one of the worst fire seasons on record, more than 2,500 homes have been burned, tens of thousands of people evacuated, and at least 29 killed. Here, a photographer reacts to seeing the burnt-out remains of a relative's home in Quaama, New South Wales.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Davey
Area the size of South Korea razed
As of January 17, fires have burnt roughly 10 million hectares (25 million acres) of land, an area larger than South Korea or Portugal. More than 170 fires continue to burn in Victoria state and New South Wales. There were 82 fires burning across New South Wales, 30 uncontained, and several fires in Victoria, according to fire authorities.
Image: Imago/B. Xuefei
Battling the blazes
Firefighters protect homes around Charmhaven, New South Wales, on December 30. Wildfires burning across four Australian states that day destroyed hundreds of properties and caused multiple fatalities. A volunteer firefighter was killed and three others were injured after strong winds pushed a fire truck over.
Image: picture-allianceAP/Twitter@NSWRFS
Red skies
A person stands in protective gear as nearby bushfires turn the sky red in Mallacoota, Victoria. Thousands of people in the coastal region were told to evacuate over the New Year period, while the Country Fire Authority later issued an ominous warning to residents still in the area that it was "too late to leave." Some 4,000 people spent New Year's Eve on the beach to avoid the flames.
An air tanker drops fire retardant over the Gospers Mountain fire near Colo Heights, northwest of Sydney, Australia on November 15, 2019. The Gospers Mountain fire originated in the Wollemi National Park, and came close to merging with other major fires in the area. Fires have torn apart the Blue Mountains, a popular tourist area, burning more than 500,000 hectares of land.
Image: Reuters/AAP/D. Lewins
Quick escape
A burnt bicycle lies on the ground in front of a house destroyed by bushfires on the outskirts of the town of Bargo, near Sydney, on December 21, 2019. The town was hit with a catastrophic fire danger warning as fires turned several nearby homes to ashes. The New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian declared a state of emergency that same week.
Image: Getty Images/D. Gay
Toddler receives posthumous medal for firefighter father
Firefighters are among the 28 people who have lost their lives in the fires. Some were volunteers. Thirty-two-year-old Geoffrey Keaton, along with a colleague, died when a burnt tree fell in the path of their fire truck. Keaton's nineteen-month-old son Harvey was awarded one of the service's highest honors on behalf of his father on January 2.
Image: Reuters/NSW RURAL FIRE SERVICE
Animals caught in the flames
A kangaroo that survived the bushfire in Wollemi National Park in Sydney grazes for food in November 2019. The fires have not only sparked concern over human well-being, but have also created worries over the survival of endangered and vulnerable animals. The fires have killed more than a billion animals across eastern and southern Australia.
Image: Imago Images/AAP/J. Piper
Economic toll
The Insurance Council of Australia said on January 7 that the bushfires have caused at least US$485 million (€435 million) in damage and that number was likely to rise. Separately, authorities warned of looters in towns where people have evacuated and scammers taking advantage of fundraisers for relief efforts.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/S. Khan
Koala species threatened by fires
The bushfires have devastated Australia's koala population. In New South Wales state alone, officials estimate 30% of koala habitat - eucalpyt woodlands, which they use for both food and shelter - may have been lost. At least 45 koalas were being treated for burns at the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital.
Image: Reuters/AAP Image/D. Mariuz
Australians take to the streets
Thousands of people took to the streets on January 10 in Australia's major cities to rally against Prime Minister Scott Morrison's inaction on climate change and his handling of the ongoing bushfire crises. The nationwide rallies were organized by university students in Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart.
Image: picture alliance/ZUMAPRESS
Smoke across oceans
Smoke from Australia drifted across the Pacific and reached South America, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on January 7. On January 2, the EU Copernicus program recorded the highest concentrations of atmospheric carbon monoxide in the world over the "clean" South Pacific Ocean stemming from the fires in Australia.
Image: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
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"The interim findings are shocking," WWF Australia CEO Dermot O'Gorman said. "It's hard to think of another event anywhere in the world in living memory that has killed or displaced that many animals."
"This ranks as one of the worst wildlife disasters in modern history," he added.
Arnulf Köhncke, species protection expert at WWF Germany, warned that horrific bushfires could become a common occurrence: "The record fires in Australia could become the new normal, just a taste of what's to come, if we don't manage to limit the global temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit)," he said.
Limiting temperature increases to 1.5 C above pre-industrial averages, as stipulated in the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, is seen as crucial to preventing catastrophic global warming and worsening weather events.
