Nearly three billion animals have been killed or displaced by the unprecedented forest fires that ravaged Australia in 2019 and 2020, according to a study released on Tuesday which speaks of "one of the worst disasters in the world". modern history for wildlife ”.
Read also: Smoke from fires in Australia goes around the planet
This large study conducted by several Australian universities suggests that 143 million mammals have been affected by this crisis, as well as 2.46 billion reptiles, 180 million birds and 51 million frogs. She does not quantify the number of animals killed, but the outlook for those who escaped the flames " is probably not terrible " due to a lack of food, shelter and protection from their predators, said Chris Dickman, one of the authors.
These fires, which return each year at the end of the southern winter but were particularly virulent for several months in 2019-2020, destroyed 115,000 square kilometers, an area three times the size of the Netherlands, killing 30 people.
Endangered koalas
A previous study in January estimated the number of animals killed in the worst-affected areas in the states of Victoria and New South Wales at one billion. The study released Tuesday is the first to take into account all of the areas that have burned in Australia, according to Lily van Eeden of the University of Sydney.
Read also: Will “mega-fires” become the new normal in Australia?
" It is difficult to think of other events elsewhere in the world in living memory that have killed or moved so many animals, " said Dermot O'Gorman, Managing Director of the Australian Branch of the Global Fund for nature (WWF). “ It is one of the worst disasters in modern history for wildlife. "
The plight of the koalas had moved public opinion, but a government investigation recently cited 100 other endemic plants and animal species as endangered as having lost more than half of their habitat in the flames.