Hundreds of #KoalaBears dead due to #BushFires in #Australia

PHOTO: Experts hold concerns for koalas after a fire in the Lake Innes Nature Reserve, a known koala hotspot. (ABC Mid North Coast: Wiriya Sati)

Hundreds of koalas are believed to have perished in a bushfire that has ripped through a large area of critical koala habitat, south of Port Macquarie in New South Wales

Staff from the Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie are unable to access the area because it remains off limits due to the continuing intensity of the blaze.

Ms Flanagan said it was likely at least 350 koalas had died, based on the overall size of the current fire footprint, which is two-thirds of the koala habitat, and a 60 per cent mortality rate.

“Twenty years worth of work at the place. I just feel like walking away, I really do, I’m not going to, but it’s just awful,” she said.

The fire razed an area south of Port Macquarie that is considered critical koala habitat.

The fire has so far burnt out more than 2,000 hectares of bushland and is continuing to spread.

The Koala Hospital has worried about the potential for this scale of destruction since 2002.

“That area houses the most significant population of koalas in this region,” Ms Flanagan said.

Courtesy of abc.net.au

https://tinyurl.com/ulay2h5