Impact on wildlife

AN APRIL 2021 Australian Water Association magazine lists the significant wildlife impact from Australia’s 2019-2020 bushfire season. Impacted or killed were – 60,000 koalas; 114,000 echidnas; 1.1 million wombats; five million kangaroos and wallabies; 5.5 million bettongs, bandicoots, quokkas, and potoroos; 40 million possums and gliders.

The study was completed by WWF-Australia.

Monash University is studying the impact to aquatic wildlife from waterways contaminated by bushfire run off. Impacts on platypus, frogs and fish are key and a second project is researching the impact on all aquatic vertebrates.

With global warming and population growth, wildlife is being heavily impacted globally. We are intrinsically linked with the natural world and its demise is to our detriment.

DOUG HARLAND, Toowoomba