Canberra: More than 60,000 koalas among three billion animals were impacted during Australia’s devastating 2019-20 ‘Black Summer’ bushfires, a report released Monday revealed.
The report from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) found nearly three billion native animals including, mammals, birds, reptiles and frogs, were in the path of the devastating flames, reports 9 News.
The report, ‘Impacts of the unprecedented 2019-2020 bushfires on Australian animals’ found about 143 million mammals, 2.46 billion reptiles, 181 million birds, and 51 million frogs lived in the areas hit by the fires.
In total, more than 15,000 fires occurred across all states and resulted in a combined impact area of up to 19 million hectares.
Koalas, already under pressure from land clearing, drought and cars, were particularly hard hit by the blazes.
According to the report, the fires impacted over 41,000 koalas on South Australia’s Kangaroo Island, more than 11,000 in Victoria, nearly 8000 in New South Wales, and nearly 900 in Queensland.
Death, injury, trauma, smoke inhalation, heat stress, dehydration, loss of habitat, reduced food supply, increased predation risk, and conflict with other animals after fleeing to unburnt forest were just some of the threats faced by the native marsupials, it added.
Dermot O’Gorman, CEO of WWF-Australia, said the fires were “one of the worst wildlife disasters in modern history”.
“Sixty-thousand koalas impacted is a deeply disturbing number for a species already in trouble,” 9 News quoted O’Gorman as saying.
“WWF is determined to help restore wildlife and habitats, rejuvenate communities impacted by the bushfires, boost sustainable agriculture and future-proof our country.”
IANS