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Volunteers keep wildlife alive for months post fire

21/08/2020 Jacob Howard and Bulletin reports

Image source: M Fillinger.

COVID-19 HAS CLOGGED the news and taken up just about all our interest and thoughts over the last several months. However, for many volunteers their work and minds are still heavily focused on help and care for wildlife since the ‘Black Summer’ fires (seen above).

The effort by volunteer groups goes on months after the event. After the Carwoola fires in February 2017, regional volunteers at Wildcare were support-feeding for eight months post fires.

Volunteer wildlife care organisations and helping groups pulled resources and funds from a wide range of donors to provide adequate care for the countless injured, defenceless, displaced and hungry animals post last season’s fires. The efforts of these organisations are still continuing in and around the capital region, the mountains, Braidwood, Monaro and the coastal hinterland, months after the last fires were extinguished.

Still counting the dead and missing

We are only just starting to gauge the amount of death and loss the Black Summer bushfires have had on Australia’s wildlife. A recent study, funded by WWF Australia, found that almost 3 billion animals have been killed or displaced by the fires. While these are staggering numbers, University of Sydney professor Chris Dickman, who coordinated the study, said the figure is still a conservative estimate.

President of Wildcare Queanbeyan, Belinda Hogarth, said they have seen a devastating number of killed or injured wildlife since the fires. “In one of the cases a property owner found 14 charred Greater Gliders, which are a threatened species.”

Wildcare has been at the forefront of animal care post fires. Hogarth said the causes of animal death and injury goes far beyond the initial fire and even if the animal survives the fire they still face many dangers and threats.

“Everyone thinks it’s about burned animals and largely it’s not. A lot of it isn’t the initial fire that kills or injures the animal, it’s usually secondary from walking around after the fires when they are looking for food, or they just starve to death.”

“On top of this many animals suffer from smoke inhalation or, since so much trees and bushland are gone, the animals are much more susceptible to predator attacks by cats and foxes.”

(Editor’s note: Or are tempted to eat poison baits spread by government authorities.)

Feeding wildlife post fire

Wildcare’s major focus since the fires has been on feeding displaced animals threatened by starvation. Hogarth said for a long time after the fires there is little to no food for the majority of the animals. The bigger macropods like kangaroos can escape whereas wallabies or other mammals such as wombats or quolls or potoroos are smaller so they don’t travel as far and they like forested areas. This means a lot of them don’t leave and instead find shelter, but once they surface they no longer have any feed.

Even once the trees start to grow the first wave of leaves is often toxic to animals as the tree is trying to protect itself. As well as this the first grass after a fire has a high water content so it has very poor nutrition for the animals.

Food distributed on Tallaganda 40 properties; community groups heeded the call

To combat this severe lack of food, Wildcare has been putting out food lots on volunteered properties in heavily affected areas. “In Tallaganda alone we had food lots on 40 properties with up to ten stations on particular properties but now we are down to just eight properties,” said Hogarth.

Generous donations by NGOs and private sources gave Wildcare the funding that they needed to supply food, blankets and medical care to the animals. The World Wildlife Fund donated $100,000 to Wildcare and Hogarth said they saw a massive increase in donations by community groups and private donors.

“There was a singing group in Canberra that held a concert and they gave us the money from that, then other groups such Queanbeyan council gave us $5,000 and the International Federation for Animal Welfare gave us a further $6,000,” said Hogarth.

Wildcare also saw donations of resources such as blankets, rags and linen. Hogarth said that nurses, vets and paramedics donating medical equipment that proved vital during the fires. The Southern Cross 4WD Club, again proved very useful with vehicles that could get Wildcare into difficult off-road locations. Wildcare also asked landowners to put out water and feed for birds.

Wildcare estimated volunteers saved over 700 mammals from starvation as well as additional reptiles and birds.

Koala rescue at Two Thumbs

Two Thumbs Wildlife Trust koala sanctuary east of Captains Flat lost up to 200 koalas, said sanctuary owner James Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald also estimates over 1,000 more koalas were killed in the greater capital region.

Many of the koalas that were rescued and brought into care at Two Thumbs had to be treated for major burns they had received after walking around once the fires had passed. Fitzgerald and his team have found close to 50 koalas since the fires. However, ten of those had to be euthanised due to serious burns.

“When we first started finding the koalas during the fires most of the time you’d find them with serious burns on the hands and feet because they have been walking around on the burning ground. We also saw a lot of koalas with unkempt fur because they stop grooming themselves when they are injured or sick,” said Fitzgerald.

He said that koalas have no chance of escaping the fires and the ones that survive just happen to be holding onto a tree that doesn’t get burned down. The care that Two Thumbs has been providing is predominantly around treating burn wounds and inspecting koala eating habits. “When koalas are badly injured or stressed they won’t eat, so we study their droppings and see if they producing enough pellets.”

Fitzgerald’s colleague Dr Karen Ford had been caring for severely burned koalas at ANU (Australian National University) where she in some cases had to treat their wounds multiple times a day. They were gradually moved back to Two Thumbs.

Years to rebuild populations, but joeys seen

Two Thumbs has been one of the only sanctuaries with an increasing koala population. With the small number of animals, the best a koala population can increase is double in three years, or in ten years if there is a high presence of chlamydia in the population Fitzgerald said.

The good news is that while they have lost many koalas at the sanctuary, Fitzgerald said they are still seeing joeys which means the koalas are mating.

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Koalas get new home and firefighters honoured (NSW)

28/07/2020 Jacob Howard and Bulletin reports

ON 23 JANUARY 2020 southern Australia’s Black Summer bush fires swept through the Peak View district between Captains Flat and Cooma. They caused a widely-reported twofold disaster.

On this day Two Thumbs Wildlife Trust Koala Sanctuary was totally enveloped in the blaze, many native animals perished and tragically an air tanker and three American crew trying to protect the sanctuary also died when their tanker crashed next to the property.

Five months later wildlife rescuer and sanctuary owner James Fitzgerald felt he could relive that terrible day with us and talk about his recovery for the sanctuary and the koalas.

CAPTION (main image): James Fitzgerald and newly-housed koala make acquaintance. (Image: Jacob Howard)

Throughout the district and as you enter Two Thumbs, you see evidence of the fires on the small clusters of trees that cover the land. After travelling along a dirt road for a few kilometres and past the third gate we approach a destroyed house, which was previously James’ home. (Image: Jacob Howard)

A fireplace stands tall in the middle of the corpse of the house. The remaining metal has been completely warped and bent with everything being covered in flowing patterns of blue and brown/orange rust. Incredibly, the clothesline in the backyard appeared to be almost untouched by the fire. James tells us later that when the fire swept through, he had two koalas in care at the house and two goannas. He could not reach them.

Shortly after we arrive James and colleague Dr Karen Ford (from ANU) drive past us on their way to collect fresh tree branches for their koalas in enclosures. Soon, we follow them further into the burned property. About halfway up a hill we reach an opening of flat unburned land. This open area is the site of new koala housing.

Several shipping containers are scattered around the site but the main focus is the koala enclosures. Two large and airy structures are already built and a further two are in process of being built.

“I’m using some insurance money to build these two new enclosures, and some generous donations are helping us build more,” James said. He is living in a caravan himself and is happy that after six months he is getting some electricity back. He has six enclosures in mind. James explains that they chose this space because it was one of the few areas that the fires didn’t destroy.

James and Karen are introducing a new koala to the sanctuary. He leans in obligingly for ‘meeting’ photos. They tell us this koala was being cared for at ANU after he suffered heavy burns to his feet in the fires but is now healthy enough to live in the enclosures at Two Thumbs.

The koalas stay here for about eight weeks as they continue recovery from their wounds, before being released.

“We named three of the koalas after the American firefighters who died in the plane crash — Ian, Rick and Paul. The families of the Americans have actually met the koalas and they were very appreciative that we named the koalas after them. We greatly acknowledge their sacrifice.”

Karen-searching-koala-transmissions-cr_Jacob-Howard-cropped

Karen tracking koala movements. Image: Jacob Howard.

James said they had found about 50 koalas since the fires. More than they had hoped for appear to be maintaining themselves in the burned environment. James and Karen are tracking the location and recovery of some.

Dr Karen studies the nutrition of eucalyptus leaves and she is tracking koala movements at Two Thumbs to understand how they behave post fires. She brings out her computer with the tracking details of three radio-collared koalas and shows us where they have been and how far they have travelled over the past day.

“They often have their favourite areas that they like to go to and favourite paths they like to take,” she explains. But they can travel amazing distances in 24 hours, she is finding. At the back of the property which is burned as far as the eye can see with a few unburned patches, we try and locate some of the koalas through a radio transmitter. Each koala has its own frequency so they know which animal they are listening in on.

The radio works as a sort of sonar radar with the frequency of beeps telling you how close you are to the koala.

“The koalas that survived were just lucky enough to be holding onto a tree that wasn’t burned down,” said James. Those areas that are still green is where the fire changed direction and that’s where the koalas will go to feed and sleep.”

Before we leave, Karen is able to pick up the signal up of two of the koalas but they are very faint.

Two-Thumbs-VWs-collateral-damage-wider-cr-Maria-Taylor

Image: Maria Taylor

Where the airtanker crashed

On the way out of sanctuary James takes us to the site where the tanker crashed. The plane crashed just outside of Two Thumbs’ property but you can see the crash site from the sanctuary. You can see the clearing where the plane went down very clearly.

“The plane went down on the 23rd which was the biggest day for the fires and when the plane went down, we didn’t even hear it because the fires are incredibly loud,” said James. Smoke was thick and wind was high.

Bulletin reporter Jacob Howard meets koala_cr Maria Taylor

Bulletin feature reporter Jacob Howard meets koala. Image: Maria Taylor

James, who has experienced wholesale destruction of his home and his rescue work, is strong and resolved on a comeback, for koalas and also for the other native animals (kangaroos, wallabies, birds and reptiles) on his property. He is sadly realistic too. He tells us he is now back to an earlier point of rebuilding the local koala population. It took 40 plus years to get to the pre-fire level, one of the few areas in this part of south eastern NSW with an increasing population.

But with this continuing help and care there is hope for these koalas.

[NOTE: On smaller screens click on images to view larger.]

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