More than 2,000 koalas dead after Australian bush fires

Thousands of koala bears have tragically died and more are feared dead as the Australian bush fires continue to rip through New South Wales.

Experts said the blaze has ravaged koala habitat so rapidly that ‘we will probably never find the bodies’, after thousands of hectares of habitat were destroyed.

An urgent parliament inquiry is expected to hear evidence on Monday that more than 2,000 have died after succumbing to their horrific burns.

Around 90 fires are still ripping through NSW – half of which are thought to be uncontained – and the country is braced for a heatwave this week.

Experts fear more of the vulnerable animals’ habitat will be burnt to the ground, as the ‘mega fire’ on the outskirts of Sydney measuring more than 335,000 hectares, could take weeks to put out.

Mark Graham, Nature Conservation Council ecologist, told the hearing that koalas ‘really have no capacity to move fast enough to get away’.

As the crown fires are spreading from treetops, they have no way of getting to the ground in time to avoid injury.

Mr Graham said: ‘The fires have burned so hot and so fast that there has been significant mortality of animals in the trees, but there is such a big area now that is still on fire and still burning that we will probably never find the bodies’.

‘We’ve lost such a massive swath of known koala habitat that I think we can say without any doubt there will be ongoing declines in koala populations from this point forward,’ he added.

Volunteers from the The Port Macquarie Koala Hospital have been working alongside National Parks and Wildlife Service crews searching for koalas, following weeks of devastating fires across NSW and Queensland.

Heartbreaking images and videos of the bandaged animals crying out in pain have have devastated people across the globe.

One woman was praised for heroically ripping off her top to wrap up a koala and rescue it from the top of a tree, where it was stuck surrounded by huge flames closing in.

Koalas are listed as vulnerable in NSW, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory, mostly due to habitat clearing.

The hearing is set to analyse the extent of damage done to the koala population, while ecologists warned there was no planning in place to rescue the animals.

Science for Wildlife executive director, Dr Kellie Leigh, told the hearing: ‘We’re getting a lot of lessons out of this and it’s just showing how unprepared we are.

‘There’s no procedures or protocols in place… even wildlife carers don’t have protocols for when they can go in after fire.’

She added: ‘We’re just helpless at the moment. [With] business as usual we have no way to deal with this, no way to manage it.’

North East Forest Alliance president and ecologist Dailan Pugh said more than 2,000 koalas are estimated to have died in the fires, while up to one-third of the habitat has been lost on the north coast.

On Sunday, Cate Faehrmann, chair of the inquiry, said the ‘devastating’ loss of so many animals should push authorities to introduce stronger conservation efforts.

She said: ‘Hearing that we have lost up to a third of koala habitat and more than 2,000 koalas on the north coast is utterly devastating and should be a wake-up call for this government’.

Fires are raging across the states of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania.

The ‘mega fire’ on the outskirts of Sydney has been caused by several fires merging into one.

Bushfires are common in Australia but scientists say this year’s season has come earlier and with more intensity due to a prolonged drought and climatic conditions fuelled by global warming.