Devastating wildfires continue ravaging Australia.
As part of the rescue operation by a small canine team of just two dogs, seven koalas were found in a burnt-out forest at Maryvale on Queensland’s South Downs.
Armed with their keen sense of smell to sniff out koala excrement, these two dogs are doing things that are impossible for humans alone.
The detection dogs have already found seven koalas surviving amid burnt out forest at Maryvale on Queensland’s Southern Downs.â£This is just the start of ongoing searches.â£â£To help us continue distributing funds to care for our injured wildlife – https://t.co/GhyqbfCssa pic.twitter.com/GhE6xi4FM5
â WWF_Australia (@WWF_Australia) January 19, 2020
It is easy to overlook the Koalas for the human eye because of their canopy dwellings.
Dogs are naturally more aware of their surroundings due to their heightened senses, considering the large area that they have to search, this is a major advantage.
The fires reportedly burned more than 25.7 million acres in Australia since September 2019, which is larger than the U.S. state of Indiana.
28 people lost their lives to these fires, more than 2,600 houses got burned.
Researchers aren’t sure of how many koalas are left in the region but they have hope that koalas are moving to different habitats to avoid the fires.
The little canine team first found a mother Koala and her infant. Both the koalas were found to be on the same tree moving around and their health seemed okay.
Another adult male and adult female koala were found while moving forward and signs of koala life were spotted all around.
The team covered 10 km of the forest.
According to Steven Selwood of South Australia Veterinary Emergency Management, there are only 9,000 koalas that remain out of the 46,000 that were thought to be on Kangaroo Island before this season’s bushfire, the Republic World reported.
Experts estimate that around 80 per cent of Koala habitat has been wiped out since the deadly fire started down under.
According to conservationists and environmentalists, Koalas should be now categorised as endangered.
Koalas are already listed as vulnerable as of now.
Also read: Sydney Becomes 12th Worst City With Hazardous Air Quality, Climate Change Adds To Bushfire Crisis
