Wildlife ravaged by Australia fires could take decades to recover

The bushfires raging across Australia have had a devastating impact on the country's unique flora and fauna, with some estimates putting the death toll at nearly half a billion animals in one state alone, and experts believe it could take decades for wildlife to recover.

Harrowing footage of desperate koalas drinking from water bottles handed to them by rescuers and kangaroos standing helpless in fire-ravaged towns and charred forests have shocked people across the world. Professor Andrew Beattie from Macquarie University near Sydney told AFP he believes the death toll of animals nationwide could be in the billions,"if you think of mammals, and birds, and reptiles, amphibians and say the larger insects such as butterflies".

Koala populations have been hit particularly hard because they live in trees, feed only on certain types of eucalypts and cannot move quick enough away from the flames. "It's those areas that are untouched or have suffered less where wildlife tends to accumulate if they can get there," Beattie told AFP, adding that if there are enough of these, the burnt forests should regenerate over time but only if conditions improve quickly.

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