Fires in Australia: these false images circulating on social networks

Animals in distress, children facing the flames ... The fires that have ravaged Australia for three months, having left 24 dead and two missing, have given rise to hundreds of strong images, which quickly went viral.

But among the photos of red skies, decimated forests and displaced families, there are hidden images that have nothing to do with the disaster. And yet they attract a lot of attention from internet users.

The girl and the koala

It is one of the images most used to symbolize the scale of the disaster. In the foreground, a little girl wearing a breathing mask, a koala on her arm. In the background, a body of water bordered by flames.

Except that this image is in fact a photomontage. Its creator, an Australian photographer, confirms this on her personal Instagram account. "This photo is now viral, so please specify that it is a Photoshop montage please," she says in caption. "This room is dedicated to all the brave firefighters who are trying to save the Earth, our mother and all her children," she said when she published the image.

The kangaroo hug

#AustralianFires Animals have no soul. pic.twitter.com/VBVxbzApyU

Two kangaroos hugging. A touching image supposed to translate the distress of these marsupials displaced by thousands in Australia. This image, although moving, has in fact nothing to do with the fires that are ravaging the country at the moment.

Screenshot / TinEye

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A simple reverse image search on the TinEye tool shows that it was already used as a profile photo on a music blog in 2010. It has been republished several times since, most often on sites disseminating viral images .

Koala in bad shape

Every life saved is precious #AustralianFires pic.twitter.com/EqMBRQNsnk

"Every little life saved is precious," says a surfer above a "liked" photo 7,000 times. In the picture, a koala lying on towels, legs resting in small bowls of water. He seems to be resting after a long and exhausting battle against the flames.

This koala was badly battered by Australian fires, but in 2015. A BBC article on the hundreds of animals dead in the blaze, dated five years ago, includes this image disseminated by AMWRRO, a animal rescue and research association.

Two boys facing the flames

Is Australia far from us?
We will have to get used to seeing these images everywhere.
Either we're changing everything now, or we're all going to be very hot tomorrow. 🌡️ # fires #AustraliaFires #PrayForAustralia

For the energy transition and popular ecology,
and quick. pic.twitter.com/9GSw0kK1dY

One would think that it is about two brothers, or two young friends, distraught in front of the blaze. In this photo shared several hundred times, we see a young boy and another, smaller, feet in the water, facing a sky tinged with red and black because of the flames.

In reality, this photo is a montage from another photo, which remains difficult to authenticate. The little boy on the right has been artificially added, as shown in the original where only one boy is seen.

The unsigned photograph started appearing on the Internet in November 2019, two months after the fires started. It was notably taken up by several stars, like Khloe Kardashian on Instagram, or Liam Payne, the former member of the boy band "One Direction".

Can't believe what is happening in Australia right now for those who have never been it is one of my most favorite countries I've ever had the pleasure to visit ... its beauty is slowly being destroyed by fire and we all must help however we can ... https://t.co/MufH8z6PLM pic.twitter.com/0TvXIJZADO

A woman comforts a kangaroo

What have we done 😭 # AustralianFires I'm so very sorry, my heart is in pain💔 pic.twitter.com/hr4Howxnd0

Clearly, kangaroos are tactile. This image circulates in different formats, on several more or less followed accounts. We see a woman take a - a priori - sad kangaroo in her arms in the middle of a desert.

Rest assured, the hug is not wrong. But this image actually dates from 2016. It comes from a video published by "The Kangaroo Sanctuary Alice Springs" (understand: the "kangaroo sanctuary"), a center that welcomes and cares for kangaroos before releasing them in the nature.

Nothing more beautiful than loving cuddles from Queen AbiFor licensing or usage please contact licensing@viralhog.com

The kangaroo we see hugging is called Abigail, and she has a habit of hugging her rescuers every day.

G'day everyoneI hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. This photo is of Abi and I having a cuddle a few days ...