SYDNEY - Australia's bush fires have taken a devastating toll on wildlife and killed more than a billion animals, raising questions about how - or whether - the nation's natural environment can fully recover.
"It will take some time to work out the extent of the impact - all we can say is that the extent and severity is something we have never seen before," he told The Straits Times.Australia's fires have destroyed more than 10 million hectares of bushland - an area larger than South Korea - though the damage may be as much as 17 million hectares. Twenty-eight people have been killed and more than 2,000 homes have been lost.
Scientists have estimated that more than a billion animals - including birds and reptiles, but not fish, bats and invertebrates - and hundreds of billions of insects have been killed. Some species of animals are likely to have become extinct without even being discovered. Prof Dickman said the number of invertebrates lost was impossible to estimate but was"undoubtedly in the hundreds of billions". He said invertebrates such as spiders and butterflies play a vital ecological role and help to pollinate, spread soil and provide a food source for larger creatures.
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