Bushfire On Kangaroo Island Is Eventually Contained After Almost A Month Of Firefighting

Jan 26, 2020 by apost team

After weeks of blazing fires threatening to completely destroy it, the world is getting its first look at what's left of Kangaroo Island. The losses left behind are heartbreaking, and secondary effects are likely to indefinitely impact the island's wildlife population.

Kangaroo Island, Australia’s third largest island, is a spectacular landscape home to almost 5,000 people. Thousands of tourists flock to the island each year to experience its unique setting for themselves. Its economy includes bustling wine, agricultural, fishing, and farming industries. It’s home to South Australia's only eucalyptus oil distillery and the world's only pure-bred and disease-free population of Ligurian honey bees.

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A multitude of wildlife call Kangaroo Island home. In fact, it’s a sanctuary for them. Around 25 percent is conserved status, meaning the Rosenberg's Sand Goanna, the Southern Brown Bandicoot, Australian sea lions, and koalas living there can do so without the threat of human danger. Unfortunately, the recent fires have undone decades worth of carefully executed conservation efforts.

The bushfires were recently declared contained after three weeks of firefighters tirelessly doing everything possible to stop the destruction, including blacking out and securing the fire’s edge. In a tweet by journalist Dani Brown, the South Australian Country Fire Service explained, “contained” means that new fires aren’t emerging outside the fire area and the rate of spread has been stopped.

In just those few weeks, the fires managed to consume over a third of the island, and windy weather could still potentially undo the progress made by firefighters. The CFS has announced in a statement that they’ll be carefully monitoring the weather situation in the upcoming days.

Containment is good news for the koalas living on Kangaroo Island but much damage has already been done. According to ABC News, it’s estimated that only 25,000 of the 50,000 koalas on the island have survived the fire.

Koalas aren’t actually native to the island. Yet, they’ve flourished there for years after being introduced by conservationists. What’s unique about Kangaroo Island’s koala population is that, unlike other koalas in Australia, these aren’t diseased. They don’t have chlamydia, which is notorious throughout Australia’s koalas. Chlamydia causes severe bladder inflammation, blindness, infertility, and even mortality in infected koalas, reports the Daily Mail.

Terri Irwin told Sunrise that koalas were particularly hard hit by the fires due to their own survival instincts and habitat preferences. Their instinct is to go up their favorite trees, the eucalyptus tree, and away from the fire. They have no idea that eucalyptus trees are full of oil that acts as an accelerant for the fire. When engulfed by fire, the eucalyptus explodes and incinerates anything attached, including the koalas seeking refuge at the top.

It’s a factor that’s made treating many of the injured koalas nearly impossible. Retired veterinarian Duncan McFetridge and veterinarian nurse Belinda Battersby, who’ve been operating a makeshift clinic for the injured, told the BBC that the burns on most of the injured koalas are so severe that they’ve needed to be euthanized. The wounds that can be treated are being complicated by winds blowing infection-causing debris into the exposed burn wounds and contaminating them. The clinic is also short on appropriate cages to support recovery.

Experts like ecologist and coordinator for the nonprofit Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife, Heidi Groffen, fear other species won’t even be left with survivors, reports ABC News. The 300 or more dunnarts, for example, may have been too small to outrun the fires. Groffen also points to a major concern for the upcoming weeks and months, which is that so much habitat destruction means that survivors across the species spectrum may not be able to find adequate food supplies outside captivity.

Christopher Dickman, a professor of ecology at the University of Sydney, explained in a statement on the university website what a huge ecological loss the Kangaroo Island fires are for the world. The small island was separated from mainland Australia thousands and thousands of years ago, which meant that rabbits, foxes, and such never had a chance to inhabit the island. Local wildlife flourished in their absence, and the flora and fauna remained pristine because of the distinctive habitats. Dickman compares it to a southern Australian ark enabling a step back through time.

Today, we are left with the sad reality that so much of that land ark is gone, and the future for all the surviving species is still very much uncertain. Have you been following the Kangaroo Island fires? It’s heartbreaking to see such an amazing place face such peril. Leave us a comment with your thoughts and well wishes, and don’t forget to pass this story along to others who’d like to follow and/or help in the recovery efforts.