South Australia’s iconic Kangaroo Island could see rare species wiped out after devastating bushfires
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Kangaroo Island is renowned for its native wildlife — the koalas are disease-free, the bees create the purest honey and it is home to one of Australia’s rarest marsupials.
But bushfires that ravaged the 4,400-square-kilometre island have left wildlife experts concerned about the future of some of its threatened species.
About a third of the island has been charred.
The fire has devastated the Flinders Chase National Park, which is home to koalas, kangaroos, rare birds and marsupials.
Threatened Species Recovery Hub deputy director John Woinarski — who is also a professor at Charles Darwin University — said the fires across Australia had been a “holocaust of destruction” for wildlife.
Bushfires have ravaged about 5.8 million hectares of bush, known for its unique flora and fauna, across Australia.
It is estimated that wildlife loss across Australia through this bushfire season will exceed 500 million.
Professor Woinarski said recovery could take decades.
“It may take many years for the resources that those plants and animals need after the fire to come back again — so things like tree hollows, dense layers of vegetation and leaf litter,” he said.
