Australia fires -wild animal suffering of catastrophic scale

[sam1]

"There are real concerns entire species of plants and animals have been wiped out by bushfires following revelations almost 500 million animals have died since the crisis began.

Ecologists from the University of Sydney now estimate 480 million mammals, birds and reptiles have been lost since September.

That figure is likely to soar following the devastating fires which have ripped through Victoria and the NSW South Coast over the past couple of days, leaving several people dead or unaccounted for, razing scores of homes and leaving thousands stranded."

learnworthy.net/half-a-billion-animals-perish-in-bushfires/

[creature386]

That's… startling. Normally, bushfires never even come near such bodycounts.

[dinosauria101]

I honestly wonder if it might be beneficial for firefighters to help out with it?

[kekistani]

Why is this particular fire series so deadly compared to others? Bushfires usually don't kill this much stuff.

[sam1]

Jan 4, 2020 22:41:14 GMT 5 creature386 said:

That's… startling. Normally, bushfires never even come near such bodycounts.

Normaly? The weather is getting crazy around the globe..this is mainly the consequence of extreme weather conditions down under.  I think some record high temperatures have been recorded this summer.

[creature386]

Jan 5, 2020 1:48:54 GMT 5 sam1 said:

Jan 4, 2020 22:41:14 GMT 5 creature386 said:

That's… startling. Normally, bushfires never even come near such bodycounts.

Normaly? The weather is getting crazy around the globe..this is mainly the consequence of extreme weather conditions down under.  I think some record high temperatures have been recorded this summer.

By "normally", I mean fires like this:

Contrary to media reports and speculation at the time, the fires killed very few park animals— surveys indicated that only about 345 elk (of an estimated 40,000–50,000), 36 mule deer, 12 moose, 6 black bears, and 9 bison had perished.[15][32] Of 21 grizzlies that were radio-collared and had home ranges where the fires happened, only one was believed to have been lost. Grizzlies were observed in burned areas more often than unburned areas the following year, feeding on the proliferation of roots and foliage as well as on ants which thrived due to all the dead wood.[33]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_fires_of_1988
This fire affected 793,880 acres (about 300k hectares). While this is well below the "millions" of hectares (according to your article) affected by the Australian bushfires, it does not even nearly explain the disparity between those fires.
I'm not saying the half-a-billion figure is wrong. Much like kekistani, I'm rather interested in why it's so high. My guess would be that Yellowstone wildfire's kill counts just seem small because they only focus on the big and less abundant animals. Including all the small lizards might have given us a higher house number.
However, other sources seem to agree that wildfires are rarely this deadly:

Scientists don't have any good estimates on the number of animals that die in wildfires each year. But there are no documented cases of fires—even the really severe ones—wiping out entire populations or species.

www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/7/140721-animals-wildlife-wildfires-nation-forests-science/

So, yeah, this is truly a historical catastrophe. That is, if there isn't more to come.

Jan 4, 2020 23:32:41 GMT 5 dinosauria101 said:

I honestly wonder if it might be beneficial for firefighters to help out with it?

The scope of the fires is far, far, far, far too large for them to do anything meaningful. This isn't a burning house.

[sam1]

So, the situation got only worse since and the numbers are likely doubled now.
But it needs to be said that "1 billion animals" should be referred to as 1 billion vertebrates instead.
The total of all animals killed in these bushfires is probably not even attempted to be calculated.

www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/more-one-billion-animals-have-been-killed-australias-wildfires-scientist-estimates-180973926/

[creature386]

Just found this:



Now that we (hopefully) all have sufficient emotional distance from the tragic event, it's time that I intrumentalize it for my political agenda.

This is from Sam1's article:

Wildfires have long been a part of Australia’s natural history, but experts say that the country’s fire season has become longer and more extreme due to climate change, which, among other things, has been linked to the hot and dry conditions that fuel wildfires. Australia is the world’s fourth largest producer of coal and is responsible for 1.3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Activists have called on Australia’s government to do more to cut down on greenhouse gases—something that Prime Minister Scott Morrison has proved reluctant to do.

Plenty of climate change denialists blame the bushfires solely on arson (unfortunately, this includes my parents), even though this is pure hogwash:
www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-15/is-arson-mostly-to-blame-for-the-bushfire-crisis/11865724
I was much more angered when I first heard the claims of the climate change denialists than I am now. However, I still think that these people just can't be reasoned with and the fact that Australia's Prime Minister is one of them is just plain sad. Like, the world is literally burning and they're still pouring fuel into the fire.

[dinosauria101]

Oh dear. Looks like Peta's getting in on this: www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au/story/6587843/peta-blames-wool-for-australian-bush-fires/

Needless to say, their shenanigans aren't gonna help anyone.

[Infinity Blade]

I hate to be the bearer of more bad news, but somewhat related to this is the fact that the platypus is undergoing continued decline in Australia, unsurprisingly due to drought. If I'm understanding the abstract correctly, it might need to be listed as 'Vulnerable' due to future predicted threats.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320719312601?via%3Dihub

While the study above doesn't mention the recent fires in particular, it seems possible the fires are negatively affecting the platypus too (although, drought is still the main big thing).

www.atlasobscura.com/articles/australia-platypus-bushfire

[creature386]

Jan 26, 2020 4:25:09 GMT 5 dinosauria101 said:

Oh dear. Looks like Peta's getting in on this: www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au/story/6587843/peta-blames-wool-for-australian-bush-fires/

Needless to say, their shenanigans aren't gonna help anyone.

At least they are not actively harming anyone like the global warming denialists (who, unlike PETA, have actual power over Australia) do.

And while PETA's specific example is rather absurd, no-one can deny that our consumption of animal products in general is an enormous contributor to global warming.

[DonaldCengXiongAzuma]

While my area is not affected by bushfires. The fires are sadly hitting areas in the countryside (mostly). This is due to the lack of rain for a long time. There has been a few days of heavy rain but not enough, it’s been dry again.

[dinosauria101]

Jan 26, 2020 14:14:57 GMT 5 creature386 said:

Jan 26, 2020 4:25:09 GMT 5 dinosauria101 said:

Oh dear. Looks like Peta's getting in on this: www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au/story/6587843/peta-blames-wool-for-australian-bush-fires/

Needless to say, their shenanigans aren't gonna help anyone.

At least they are not actively harming anyone like the global warming denialists (who, unlike PETA, have actual power over Australia) do.

And while PETA's specific example is rather absurd, no-one can deny that our consumption of animal products in general is an enormous contributor to global warming.

I refer in particular to their examples used here. They just HAVE to do this at every single chance

[dinosauria101]

It's not just the animals and people suffering. Australia's economy is probably toast: www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/ghost-town-counting-cost-australias-bushfires-200127035021168.html