bushfires
The death toll includes up to 8,000 koalas, which were already vulnerable to extinction.
Conservation dogs are being used to sniff out injured koalas as the devastating bushfires continue in Australia. Taylor, a four-year-old Springer Spaniel has been trained to sniff out their fur and their scats. Over 30,000 koalas died in the fires on Kangaroo Island alone. The World Wide fund for Nature estimates that 1.25 billion animals have been killed in the fires.
With countries around the world continually beating their own records for both heat and rainfall year on year, extreme weather is becoming more common. Now, as the planet heats up, natural disasters are on the rise. We have seen events from wildfires to hurricanes increasing in frequency and intensity, but how exactly can our changing climate have an effect on natural disasters?
The moment was captured on Kangaroo Island, which one shaken rescuer said has "bodies of charred animals as far as the eye can see.”
WHAT'S HAPPENING
Wollemi pines have ancestors dating back 200 million years.
The glossy black cockatoo, Kangaroo Island dunnart and southern corroboree frog are just some of the species that could face extinction.
The good Samaritans drove through the devastation on Kangaroo Island to load their car with injured koalas.
Ecologists at the University of Sydney and WWF Australia estimate that a billion is a conservative figure.
The bushfires raging across Australia are forming their own weather systems.
The Australian comedian's fundraiser for local fire services battling wildfires has set off a global chain reaction.