Scientists have no idea about how many killed in fires
Many billions of animals may have already been killed by bushfires sweeping across Australia and many more will also die from burnt food sources and injuries sustained during the blazes.
At least one species – the long-footed potaroo – is feared extinct. On Kangaroo Island in South Australia, more than half of a population of 50,000 koalas are believed to have been killed. Hundreds of billions of insects are also feared dead. Scientists continue to raise their estimates for the animal death toll, but the true death toll will not be known for a long time, as scientists still cannot re-enter burnt areas to make an assessment.
“We are all very, very worried,” says Euan Ritchie, associate professor of wildlife ecology at Deakin University.
“Realistically, the number of animals killed in these fires is many, many, many billions. And we’ll never know what that true number is, because for some species we don’t know their abundance and what we have lost.”
“The overall death toll is going to be difficult to comprehend,” says Dr Mark Eldridge, the Australian Museum’s top animal scientist.
Other endangered species likely to have been affected include the spotted-tail quoll, brush-tailed rock-wallaby and corroboree frog.
Professor Chris Dickman, from the University of Sydney, raised his projected animal death toll for NSW alone from 480 million to 800 million, but he’s still calling his findings ‘highly conservative’.
Dr Rebecca Johnson, chief scientist at the Australian Museum, agrees that 800 million was an underestimate.
“The scientists have been conservative. And their estimate is only for a handful of species. It is not an overreach,” she said.
“What I’m hearing from other experts is we have no comparison for this current fire. The scale, the intensity of this, it is difficult to compare it to anything we have on record.”
"Let's be clear, these are unprecedented fires and we anticipate that we will see an unprecedented impact on our biodiversity," said Victorian Environment Minister Lily D'Ambrosio.
"Whether that's threatened species, both flora and fauna, we anticipate that there will be a significant impact."
One of our Talks at Probus we had a Lecturer from UWA, it was about five years ago and we cannot remember his name, but he was a disbeliever and brought his information as back up.
I do know that the cloud that comes out of chimney stacks in the UK is steam and not pollution as some media reports have stated.
I posted this also on Fires....to answer the Headings Question this relates to Kangaroo Island and is horrific.
A. Bushfires wiped out 32,000 sheep, 500 cattle, 800 bee hives, 65 alpacas and thousands of koalas on the island
Brings tears to my eyes reading this, those poor animals.
https://www.fondazioneslowfood.com/en/ark-of-taste-slow-food/kangaroo-island-ligurian-bee-honey/
I'd never heard of the Ligurian Bee till now.
It just part of the natural cycle of the world.