Australia After the Fire

It's small wonder the people feel the need to make up stories about the Australian bushfires.  For some, it helps give some explanation to the unbelievably terrible.  For others, cute feel-good stories (like saintly wombats selflessly rescuing other animals) makes the sharers feel like there is still hope.  In that, at least, they are right.  There is hope.  The flames will eventually die out, if only because there is nothing left to burn.  More likely, the rains will eventually calm them.

After which, there comes a question.  Lots of questions, actually, but many of them can be lumped under a single umbrella-question, "What next?"

The fires have killed an estimated one billion vertebrate animals, possibly threatening to drive some species into extinction.  They have also left untold numbers orphaned or injured, some without the possibility of release back into the wild.  What happens to them?  As in America, Australian zoos often take in animals that can't be returned to the wild, but are they - and the rehabbers, and the rescue centers, and the sanctuaries, all combined - ready for the scale of this?

I'm speaking of this as if it were the future tense.  It's already happening.

Mindful of the enormous quantities of animals that are in need of help, the government has already issued euthanasia recommendations as guidelines for some species.  Very newborn marsupials aren't much more than fetuses of placental mammals, and poorly developed ones at that, not meant to see the world outside the pouch for months after birth.  Their hand-rearing is extremely difficult and labor-intensive.  In the interests of triage, of limited manpower and limited resources, some recommendations have been brought forth calling for the euthanasia of these animals in favor of individuals that are more likely to survive and recover.  Similarly, the guidelines also give priority to some rarer species over other, more common ones.  It can be a heartbreaking decision for a rehabber or biologist in the field, having to decide which animals are spared and which are sacrificed to improve the odds of the others.

(Equally controversial to many animal lovers have been the call to destroy hundreds or thousands of feral dromedary camels - introduced to Australia over a century ago to facilitate desert exploration - to keep them from drinking up water that the native wildlife needs)

There is the chance, perhaps, to export some specimens to American, Asian, or European zoos for placement, but that has its limits as well.  How many koalas or wombats can these zoos absorb?  What of the cost and difficulty of shipping them?  Traditionally, the Australian government has been reluctant to allow exportation of its native wildlife.  In recent years, perhaps motivated by the increasing frequency of environmental disaster, be it disease, drought, or fire, they've been loosening their rules.  If you told me ten years ago that Tasmanian devils and platypuses of all things would be shipped out of Oz, I'd never have believed you.

Speaking of zoos, it has made me extremely happy to see how many American zoos have contributed money and resources to the fire relief and rescue efforts.  No zoo operates in a land of immense surplus, so those thousands of dollars chipped in here and there represent a sacrifice on their part, one that could be spent on their own animals and facilities.  I'm sure that they wish that they didn't have to do this, but it's not just Australia's wildlife heritage that is burning up in the fires, it belongs to all of us.  And it requires all of us to chip in.

I've seen this picture circling the web without attribution.  If anyone recognizes it and knows where it's from, let me know so I can credit it.  Thanks!