Time trial race to heal koalas injured in Australian fires

• Graphic report: Australia, zone zero of climate change
• Climate crisis: Australia passes from fires to floods due to torrential rains
• Biodiversity Taylor, the dog that has already rescued a fortnight of koalas in Australia
• Reach record heights.The smoke of the fire goes around the Earth

The nose of a koala, deformed and in live flesh by burns; the leg of a kangaroo, bandaged and also burned, the wing of a bat, melted. And so, thousands and thousands of animals injured and suffering, although fortunate: a legion of veterinarians and volunteers take care that they regain strength and health. Many others did not have the same fate. Either the fire calcined them, or they were euthanized so badly wounded they were. Beyond the 33 dead people and a razed surface that is equivalent to that of all of Aragon, Hungary or South Korea, the drama of the local fauna moves Australians.

"More than a billion animals died from fires across the country, and thousands of hectares of their habitat were destroyed. And we are only in the middle of summer. We cannot waste time," Green Party Senator Sarah Hanson-Young warned. The estimate of Chris Dickman, from the University of Sydney, amounts to 480 million dead animals, not including bats, frogs or insects.

" Canberra went from the apocalypse of fire and the worst air quality in the world to a torrent of ice the size of golf balls that left the trees without leaves and lowered the birds from the sky," The Age newspaper wrote after the furious hailstorm a few days ago.

In the Blue Mountains, one of the most important tourist areas in the state of New South Wales, the grass is black and dead , many trees are still standing, but have no leaves. Or the ones they have are completely black: "It is a landscape in strict mortis, " describes the local press. The smaller birds disappeared, because they have nothing to eat, and vast areas are still too dangerous and temperatures too high to venture.

Last week 50 scientists and senior officials met in a Melbourne office to coordinate aid in the area. "The atmosphere was bleak," witnesses said. One of the issues that most worries veterinarians is dealing with species that benefit from fire and devastation: "Most animals run away from fire, but some are attracted, because they know that the burned land is a perfect place for hunting. Falcons and raptors, wildcats, foxes. Scientists believe they are attracted to smoke columns. They multiply and stay there for weeks. "

Wounded and dehydrated

Michael Lynch, a veterinarian, has a broken voice when he describes the carnage he saw in recent weeks. He spent hours and hours attending native wildlife, mostly Koalas, in a field hospital on the outskirts of Melbourne. "They are wounds on hands and feet of varying severity, some of those animals will need months to heal the wounds."

After weeks without water or food, the local fauna cannot fend for itself in a natural environment razed by the flames. "Most of the animals we find are dehydrated, because they usually hydrate by eating leaves. After the fire there are no more leaves to eat, " Lynch explains.

In Mallacoota, a city on the eastern edge of the country, veterinarians have the help of local volunteers , especially elderly people willing to help the more than 70 rescued koalas. They wash them, they cut leaves for them to eat, they stay with them for hours to see if they improve. Once the animals have enough strength to be moved, they are placed in cribs with sheets and eucalyptus leaves and put on a military plane to move them away from the fire area.

Training to attend koalas

The unusual situation requires everyone to adapt. Thus, the Victoria State Zoo is offering training to local veterinarians, much more accustomed to treating cats and dogs, but now they must deal with koalas with burns and respiratory problems by smoke inhalation.

Scientists believe that more than one hundred species have lost most of their habitats , and some are in danger of becoming extinct. This is the case of the giant petauro, a marsupial that flies planning. "Their survival is uncertain after virtually all the areas where they lived were razed," said The Age , who blames Prime Minister Scott Morrison's government for failing to implement the plan to protect that species, in force for four years. years. Other marsupials are also threatened by extinction: the brush-tailed wallabie and the pygmy mountain oppositum.

And the koalas. According to the Herald Sun , they could "become extinct in eastern Australia in the next generation, as well as some one hundred species of plants and animals."

Susie Pulis created a sanctuary years ago to house kangaroos, koalas and other animals. All survivors: from hunger, from dog attacks or from traffic accidents. He lived with them at his home in Raymond Island, but when he was offered to move to the continent, with more space, he thought it was the ideal place for them to have more space and for visitors to know them better.

Now it is the refuge of dozens of animals. You can see baby kangaroos sleeping in small woven wool bags. His house was saved from the fire, but all the trees on the road leading to it are burned and the posters melted. "Food and the possibility of starving and thirst are now the problem," says Pullis.

The alternative of throwing food from the air to animals caught by fire has its contraindications. It is not easy to do it in hard-to-reach areas, especially mountainous areas. And throwing them in excess food can help spread diseases and "gentrify" species that would let go of their instincts and would no longer attempt to abandon the dangerous burning areas.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• Science and Health
• science
• Environment

Climate crisis The rise in temperatures in the oceans sets a new record in 2019

ScienceChina bans fishing in the Yangtze, the third longest river in the world

Meteorology Why has the "historic" storm of Gloria been so devastating?