Estimated one billion animals impacted by bush fires in Australia

[Mormolyce]

Professor Chris Dickman has revised his estimate of the number of animals killed in bushfires in NSW to more than 800 million animals, with a national impact of more than one billion animals.
Several weeks ago Professor Dickman, from the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Science, estimated that 480 million animals would be killed by the fires. With the fires having now continued and extended their range he has updated that figure including putting the impact nationally at more than one billion animals.

Speaking to National Public Radio in America Professor Dickman said, "I think there's nothing quite to compare with the devastation that's going on over such a large area so quickly. It's a monstrous event in terms of geography and the number of individual animals affected."

“We know that Australian biodiversity has been going down over the last several decades, and it's probably fairly well known that Australia's got the world's highest rate of extinction for mammals. It's events like this that may well hasten the extinction process for a range of other species. So, it's a very sad time.

https://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/n...-impacted.html

Also, about a third of the world's koalas will likely die due to the devastation of their habitats:

Thousands of koalas feared dead in Australia wildfires
Up to 30 percent of koala habitat has been destroyed in wildfires, environment minister says.

Thousands of koalas are feared to have died in a wildfire-ravaged area north of Sydney, further diminishing the population of Australia's iconic marsupial.

The mid-north coast of New South Wales was home to up to 28,000 koalas but wildfires in the area in recent months have significantly reduced their population.

The risk of fire accelerated on Saturday in the country's east as temperatures soared.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/...085136930.html

[WraithKingOstarion]

not a great decade for plant life and vegetation in the world. between non-stop fires in california, the amazon rain forest fires, and i'm sure countless others i'm missing... now this in australia. i'm on the fence between unfortunate coincidence and conspiracy.

[Mormolyce]

not a great decade for plant life and vegetation in the world. between non-stop fires in california, the amazon rain forest fires, and i'm sure countless others i'm missing... now this in australia. i'm on the fence between unfortunate coincidence and conspiracy.

Seems like some kind of trend going on, almost like someone could've predicted this in 2007 or something:



Climate change impact study commissioned under the previous administration.

[rogerdutt]

You shared a useful post and nice to see this here. Thanks for sharing this to us.