“Endless, sheer loss”: As Australia burns hotter and more often, native wildlife are paying the price

When increasingly savage bushfires tear through western Victoria, our national emblems - including koalas, wombats and kangaroos - often pay the heaviest price.

“Koalas are burnt on the run, and macropods fracture limbs fleeing for their lives in flight mode,” Nikki Shanahan, Director at Ballarat Wildlife Hospital, tells the West Vic Brolga.

“There’s no food, no home and the water is contaminated. The list is devastating. It’s endless, sheer loss.” 

Shanahan said that during the worst fires her team of volunteers can be overwhelmed as more and more injured animals are brought to the hospital.   

🗣️“Many veterinary clinics have vets and nurses learn more about wildlife, but it’s unfunded. Wildlife treatment is seen as pro bono for many clinics, so the out of pocket costs for clinics get stretched out so far.” 

🐨 The animal expert: Shanahan has worked in animal medicine for 30 years, and was one of the first on-call during last year’s Mount Buninyong fires, which resulted in an influx of injured wildlife to the hospital. 

In recent years, she and the team have treated many koalas, kangaroos and birds with burn injuries. 

She told the Brolga the damage done to biodiversity goes beyond the fire itself.

• “Their homes are gone. Underground dens have been lost or filled with hot smoke.”

🦘 The deadly data: 

• The ABC reports it will take the biodiversity lost in the 2024 Grampians fires 20 years to recover. 

• Earlier this year, 435,000ha of Victoria burned and thousands of flying foxes died in the most damaging mortality event since the Black Summer catastrophe in 2019-20.  

• More than three billion native animals died in Australia during the Black Summer fires. 

🔥Blazes on the rise: The University of Tasmania researched bushfires over 21 years. The final study showed that extreme fire events worldwide had more than doubled between 2003 and 2023, and that Australia was among the top four countries contributing to that statistic. 

The cost of rescue: Shanahan opened Ballarat Wildlife Hospital in 2022. The volunteer staff includes three vets, two vet nurses and two wildlife scientists. 

According to Shanahan, if we don’t “do something” by 2050, “we will have no koalas left in the natural environment”.

“We need funding for education for vets and nurses in university now, and they need to do a rotation in wildlife medicine,” she said. “We have to share the care.” 

⌚What next? Shanahan describes the lifesaving work as “a hard, heartbreaking job”, but she remains resolute.

• “We are not giving up. I keep my cup full and my heart going with all the positive outcomes I fought for to release animals on their own home ground.”