Three billion animals impacted by Australia bushfire crisis, WWF report shows

The full scale of damage from Australian bushfires on wildlife has been revealed as one of the “worst wildlife disasters in modern history.”

Nearly three billion animals including mammals, reptiles, birds and frogs were killed or forced from their homes amid Australia’s deadly Black Summer of bushfires in 2019-20.

That’s according to a World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) report which puts the number at almost three times initial estimates of 1.25 billion animals.

The world-first research, entitled Australia’s 2019-2020 Bushfires: The Wildlife Toll, has been carried out by ten scientists from the University of Sydney, University of New South Wales, University of Newcastle, Charles Sturt University, and BirdLife Australia.

WWF-Australia CEO Dermot O’Gorman said the findings mean the bushfires are ranked as “one of the worst wildlife disasters in modern history.”

“The interim findings are shocking. It’s hard to think of another event anywhere in the world in living memory that has killed or displaced that many animals,” he said.

Professor Chris Dickman, who oversaw research on the project said while research is still interim, the headline figure is unlikely to change.

“When you think about nearly three billion native animals being in the path of the fires it is absolutely huge, it’s a difficult number to comprehend,” he said.

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Animals bushfires have impacted up to three billion animals. Picture: WWF

Signs of regrowth are seen among bushfire affected natives and blue gum forestry west of in Parndana, Australia. Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

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The report states that 143 million mammals, 2.46 billion reptiles, 180 million birds and 51 million frogs were killed or displaced by the fires.

Professor Dickman said it’s unclear exactly how many died but for many animals, their prospects were “probably not that great” because of a lack of food and shelter.

Project lead Dr Lily Van Eeden said the team examined a fire impact area of 11.46 million hectares.

“We believe a continent-wide assessment of the number of animals that might be impacted has never been done in Australia before or anywhere else in the world. Other nations can build upon this research to improve understanding of bushfire impacts everywhere,” Dr Van Eeden said.

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A bushfire affected property is seen in Karatta on February 25, 2020 in Kangaroo Island. Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images.

WWF boss Mr O’Gorman said the research had been released in time for the government to consider it in an upcoming review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.

“Following such a heavy toll on Australia’s wildlife, strengthening this law has never been more important. WWF will continue to advocate for policies that benefit both people and nature, restore what has been lost, and ensure we build back a more resilient Australia,” Mr O’Gorman said.

The report calls for addressing gaps on wildlife knowledge and responses to fire, helping mobile species escape and identifying habitat crucial to threatened species.

The full report is due for release in August 2020.