Facts of the Australian Bushfire and How It Burnt the Wildlife Population to a Crisp

The fire crisis in New South Wales is still on-going, and the weather condition is hampering its progress.

Last week, the capital of Australia, Sydney, was covered with smog after a strong wind pushed the smokes from NSW bushfires. Health officials claimed that the air pollution level has increased by eight folds due to this. At least five million residents were affected, and the health officials asked people with respiratory disorders to stay indoor while the crisis is on-going.

But it's not just the humans...

While it is true that there are millions of displaced humans, the worst victim of this crisis is possibly the wildlife. And rescuers are working so hard to rescue as many animals as possible.

Animal conservation workers have rescued many young kangaroos at the wildfires near Sydney. A firefighter also gave a kangaroo he rescue an oxygen mask after it suffered from too much smoke inhalation.

The population of kangaroos has plummeted due to drought. Because of this, some areas in Australia, specifically Queensland, will be banning harvesting kangaroo meat. Hunting common wallaroo, a kangaroo species that suffered greatly from massive population decline, will also be illegal.

Another marsupial, wombat, is also affected by the fire. Two wombats were rescued through aerial transport in NSW. They were taken to a wildlife park to keep them safe.

Koalas are Functionally Extinct

The koalas made it to the headline last month after a koala sanctuary was set ablaze due to a fire caused by lightning.

Unfortunately, at least 1,000 koalas were killed after about 80 percent of their habitat got destroyed, according to Deborah Tabart, the chairman of the Australian Koala Foundation.

Experts previously reported earlier this year that koalas are "functionally extinct", meaning its population is so low that they cannot sustain it, and they also do not have any significant effect on their ecosystem.

The Australian chapter of the Worldwide Fund of Nature reported that there were only around 20,000 koalas all over the country.

Koalas are among the most common fatalities of wildfire. Unfortunately, rather than running away, they often opt to climb to the top of the tree and curl into a ball to protect themselves from the fire, explained Sue Ashton, the president of Port Macquarie Koala Hospital.

Last Halloween, the same hospital has started a GoFundMe page in hope of collecting $25,000 to build water stations for the victims of the bushfires. As of writing, the page has received over $1.5 million from at least 35,000 donors all over the world.

Because of the overwhelming response, the koala hospital will use the excess fund to create "koala arcs" where the survivors can hang themselves now that their habitats were destroyed. The fund for the breeding program will also come from the donations.

Last week, a video of a woman rescuing a badly burnt koala has gone viral.

The horror has not yet ended...

The fire has been going on for almost a month already, and yet it still has not ended. As of Sunday morning, there were about blazes all over the NSW.

On Sunday, Gladys Berejiklian, the New South Wales premier, announced a fund worth $48 million for the community recovery. This package includes up to $15,000 financial assistance for small businesses and farmers who suffered from the fire.

The Rural Fire Service warned that a lightning storm will be coming to NSW on Friday and Saturday. It might cause more blazes even if there is some heavy rainfall, so the firefighters will be alerted on those days.