Animals the forgotten victims of Australian fires

[Barrett808]

Source: AFP

Overlooked amidst the human tragedy, thousands of animals -- kangaroos and koalas as well as cattle and sheep -- also perished in the scorching fires that have swept through southeast Australia.

At least 130 people died in the flames, official figures showed, but nobody was prepared to venture an estimate on the animal losses.

"It's been absolutely devastating," the president of the Wildlife Protection Association of Australia, Pat O'Brien, told AFP.

"We've lost huge numbers of wildlife in the forest. By all reports we've got animals dying even before the flames reach them.

"Kangaroos, wallabies, all the animals that live in the trees -- the possums, koalas -- just gone, it's been a terrible, terible thing for wildlife, total devastation," he said.

Read more: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Animals_the_forgotten_victims_of_Australian_fires_999.html

[GentryDixon]

1. That was my first thought last week.

I have fought fires before, so I know the impact on the defenseless animals.

It breaks my heart.

[Michigan-Arizona]

2. Fireman in Australia giving Koala a drink

This to me is such a sad but precious video. Hug's to those firemen!
http://player.video.news.com.au/news/?AChOHqKEQmKMfv52qA_TGucgz0BnnYkO

[GentryDixon]

3. I cannot get it to download.

It is in a loop.

[Michigan-Arizona]

5. I'm so sorry

Go to news.com.au & they have several videos there & updates. I don't know how to fix the link I posted, again I'm very sorry. I had family that was lucky enough to get out before the fire hit their area & I to feel so badly for the animal's. That video is so precious so please go to that news site to watch it.

[blueclown]

22. Wow.

That was terrific. Bless those firemen.

[aquart]

4. So much in Australia will change from this.

They weren't ready. They have to be.

[Barrett808]

6. This is the future of US bushland and forests -- we'd better be ready. n/t

[roguevalley]

23. California, this could be you. :(

[bongbong]

7. Platypus

Does anybody have any news on the Healesville sanctuary? Are the platypuses OK?

[alittlelark]

8. It sounds as though they are OK.. injured animals are

being sent there.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25038828-5006785,00.html

[guruoo]

9. Yarra Glen Firefighter Darren Thompson with a baby sugar glider

rescued from the bushfires.



http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,25026357-5006301,00.html

[GoddessOfGuinness]

12. Poor baby...

:cry:

[amborin]

10. so sad...same thing in SoCal last year: big fires and NO mention of the wildlife

[Barrett808]

11. This is the first great climate disaster of the 21st century.

There will be more. Imminently.

[WriteDown]

13. You sure about that?

What about this one?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_1910

[Barrett808]

15. Yes. The evidence of changing climate in Victoria is compelling.

Tim Flannery summarizes nicely:

Australian bushfires: when two degrees is the difference between life and death
http://desdemonadespair.blogspot.com/2009/02/australian-bushfires-when-two-degrees.html

[WriteDown]

16. But the Great Burn was due to what exactly?

I am just not the sort to blame every natural disaster on climate change. Especially ones that involve arson in a eucalyptus(worse than pine) forest.

[Barrett808]

17. Indeed, extreme events will always occur. But climate change increases their frequency and severity.

In addition, irreversible transitions will occur in a climate-changed world, typically with forested land replaced by savannah. We're seeing this in the US West now, as forests are burning in enormous mega-fires, to be replaced with desert. For good coverage, see:

60 Minutes: The Age Of Mega-Fires
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/18/60minutes/main3380176.shtml

"You know, there are a lot of people who don't believe in climate change," Pelley remarks.

"You won't find them on the fire line in the American West anymore," Tom Boatner says. "'Cause we've had climate change beat into us over the last ten or fifteen years. We know what we’re seeing, and we're dealing with a period of climate, in terms of temperature and humidity and drought that's different than anything people have seen in our lifetimes."

Mass die-off of western U.S. forests due to climate change
http://desdemonadespair.blogspot.com/2009/01/mass-die-off-of-western-us-forests-due.html

Climate change causing larger forest fires: Forest Service conference
http://desdemonadespair.blogspot.com/2008/12/climate-change-causing-larger-forest.html

Sierra Nevada climate changes feed monster, forest-devouring fires
http://desdemonadespair.blogspot.com/2008/12/sierra-nevada-climate-changes-feed.html

[WriteDown]

14. Whole article demonstrates the problem with human empathy..

Seldom a mention of the snakes, lizards, frogs, toads, etc. It of course focuses on the "cute" animals. No one is ever much concerned with saving the animals that aren't cuddly.

[riderinthestorm]

18. I see it differently of course. The cuddly animals are simply the "poster children"

for the entire catastrophe.

It's hard to summon up sympathy as the brave firefighter rescues the brown spider (lethal) for example. Versus saving the cute koala. But both are saved nonetheless. Resources are poured into the 'squeaky wheel gets the most grease". If cuddly koala rescue pics are required to ensure the salvage of 100,000 acres of forest that is also home to snakes, lizards, frogs, toads etc... then I'm all for commercialism.

As a farmer, I'm especially concerned with entire ecosystems and how they work. I am intimately, hugely, enormously interested in snakes, lizards, frogs and toads (and worms, insects, bees and other nuisances) and how they all impact my world. While I recognize a picture of the lowly earthworm won't stir people's passions on ecological issues, I am cognizant that owls will.

I'll take anything we can get in the fight for conservation.

[barb162]

19. I was thinking about that. It had to be thousands of animals.

:(

[anakie]

20. it could well be over one million animals

A million native animals may have died in Victorian bushfires


MORE than a million native animals may have been killed in the Victorian bushfires, a wildlife expert says.

The massive effort to rescue animals caught in the fire has begun with triage centres set up to assess injured wildlife at staging posts at Kilmore, Whittlesea and Redesdale near Bendigo.

The animals are then being treated and assessed by vets at nearby shelters, who make the agonising decision about which ones need to be euthanased.

Those animals still able to may wait several weeks before walking out of fire-affected forest, said Gayle Chappell from the Hepburn Wildlife Shelter.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25040273-30417,00.html


Peace

[barb162]

21. Yeah, I saw this morning there were estimates that

the numbers were huge. Very sad and tragic situation with these little innocents.

[AndrewP]

24. Just tragic

[BrightKnight]

25. We should send a team of smokejumpers. - n/t