20,000+ Koala bears dead due to fires on Kangeroo Island, Australia #BushFires #Koalas #KangerooIsland #Australia

Photo Credit: Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park

Rescuers are frantically searching Kangaroo Island for injured animals amid fears over half of its 50,000 koala population perished in Friday’s devastating bushfire.

Thousands of charred bodies of native animals were littered across the West End Highway, including wallabies and koalas, after the animals tried to escape the inferno at Flinders Chase National Park.

Sam Mitchell, Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park co-owner, said his team is rescuing survivors as quickly as possible ahead of worsening conditions in the coming days.

‘There is no food left, for those (animals) who didn’t perish in the fire, a lot of them will starve to death,’ he told The Advertiser.

Mr Mitchell said the island has ‘gone from one extreme to the other’, recalling suggestions the island’s koalas should be culled in past years.

‘People would talk about koalas being a pest species … but now there are a lot of koalas (which) perished in the fires,’ he said.

Mr Mitchell said it could take years for the native wildlife to recover.

Courtesy of dailymail.co.uk

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