Falling victim to the flames

DEATH on an unprecedented scale seems to have been the fate of so many, the vestige of the Tasmanian bushfires. Native animals, slow creatures unable to outrun or fly to safety — skinks, beetles, butterflies, snakes, echidnas and snails; even possums and wallabies, have fallen victim to the flames. This is a wildlife catastrophe that makes little headlines, yet is the reality in such fire scenarios. With devastation covering 200,000ha (3 per cent of Tasmania’s landmass), the toll on animals is literally buried among the ashen and scorched earth. Walking too, in so many areas, will now be but a visual blot and a spiritual disorientation.

The experience of the wild has taken a battering for generations to come, and the wildlife will be hauntingly absent. Regeneration awaits in the wings, even with the hostility of global warming at hand. Let us pray that the wild can indeed recover its cloak of majesty, so that we can again be permitted to tread lightly in its domain.