Young kangaroo approaches boy and begs for help after suffering severe burns in devastating Australian bushfires
Kangaroos have been severely affected by the Australian wildfire and the death toll is only rising by the day. According to ecologists from the University of Sydney, an estimated 480 million mammals, birds and reptiles have been affected.
Amid all the chaos, pictures on social media show scorched koalas getting medical attention and kangaroos trying to escape fires and dead bodies of animals lying on the ground. A few pictures show a badly burnt kangaroo seeking help from a teenage boy. In the images, the boy can be seen pouring water on the body of the kangaroo with a large blue can of water and giving it a bowl to drink from.
Luckily, the little kangaroo was saved, unlike several other animals. On Saturday, two people were killed on Kangaroo Island after flames erupted near their vehicle. A further six people are missing in regions across New South Wales and Victoria.
The bushfire crisis has turned southeast Australia into an apocalyptic nightmare and is only getting worse in the summer months. More than 1,000 homes and nine million acres have been destroyed and around 23 people have been killed.
Home to various indigenous fauna including kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, possums, wombats and echidnas, all species have been affected in Australia but koalas are feared to be among the hardest hit, with an estimated 30 percent of a colony on the country's northeast coast found to be missing.
New South Wales Transport Minister Andrew Constance said the fires are similar to an 'atomic bomb'. Speaking to ABC, he said: "I've got to be honest with you, this isn't a bushfire, it's an atomic bomb. It's indescribable the hell it's caused and the devastation it's caused."
Science for Wildlife executive director Dr Kellie Leigh told the New South Wales upper house inquiry: "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."