15 January 2020 - KINGSCOTE, Australia — Kangaroo Island's animal sanctuary, where iconic Australian species such as koalas, wallabies and kangaroos have flourished in safety, has now become a scene of devastation in the midst of the country's catastrophic wildfires:
While it is impossible to know exactly how many animals in Hanson Bay Wildlife Sanctuary have died in the flames, staff say that 700 to 800 carcasses have been recovered. Dozens of volunteers are now fighting round the clock to provide veterinary care and food for those that survived.
“They have gone through so much, they are all bundling together,” Byron Manning said as he pointed to a koala perched on a branch of a singed eucalyptus tree, clenching a baby koala, or joey. “You will find a lot of the young ones bunched together in times like this.”
“Their habitat is gone,” Manning said. “These trees used to provide them with food and they are not doing that anymore.”
He rustled singed, brittle eucalyptus leaves that are normally vibrant green.
“They can’t eat this,” Manning said. “They will need help to get past this until the eucalyptus trees hopefully regenerate.”
“You look around you — where can they go?” he said. “Where is the nearest green tree? There isn’t any … And the fires are still going, it’s not over.”
Volunteers, including some of the 450 military personnel deployed to the island to help with the recovery effort, are tasked with looking for animals in distress.
They are seeing many koalas and wallabies with burns, making it harder for them to fend for themselves. Squeaking and squirming, some are put in crates and taken away to be examined.
Meanwhile, a group of soldiers has been lining up to hand-feed baby koalas. Wrapped in towels and holding on to stuffed bears, the joeys are fed special formula from a syringe.
But adult koalas need green leaves to survive and they are in short supply. Volunteers have been scouring the island in search of tree patches untouched by the fires in hopes of harvesting some greenery for the animals to eat. They are also leaving buckets of water around the park to keep them hydrated.
canibuyatrowel on January 25th, 2020 at 02:58 UTC »
Second guy looks unhappy with his koala
Dont_Touch_Roach on January 25th, 2020 at 03:43 UTC »
Second guy looking like the people that always talk about koalas and chlamydia on a wholesome koala post.
Doodlebug510 on January 25th, 2020 at 04:00 UTC »
Background:
15 January 2020 - KINGSCOTE, Australia — Kangaroo Island's animal sanctuary, where iconic Australian species such as koalas, wallabies and kangaroos have flourished in safety, has now become a scene of devastation in the midst of the country's catastrophic wildfires:
Source with full story and videos: nbcnews.com