Koalas, Other Wildlife Drowned And Battered By Australia's Flood Disaster

Wildlife groups in eastern Australia are gravely concerned for animals as catastrophic floods sweep through the region, leaving many critters waterlogged, injured, stranded or without food.

At least 14 people have died after torrential rain unleashed devastating flash floods in the states of Queensland and New South Wales over the past week. Thousands of others are homeless, without power or trapped in regions cut off by floodwaters, and more storms are still forecast to hit some areas. Many communities further south around Sydney were placed under evacuation orders Thursday.

As floodwaters in some areas of Queensland and northern New South Wales start to recede, wildlife rescue groups are starting to field calls about animals affected by the disaster. Many vets and local rescuers have been flooded themselves, leaving limited sources to provide aid.

In the northern New South Wales city of Lismore — which experienced its worst flood event in history this week, with water engulfing entire homes — a local volunteer for the WIRES wildlife rescue group said she was concerned that many small mammals like echidnas did not survive.

“Unfortunately, it’s a really bad time of the year for echidnas because they’ve got all their puggles in burrows,” WIRES staffer Leoni Byron Jackson said. “So those areas have gone underwater. Those babies have drowned.”

She said one woman had contacted her after finding an echidna clinging to a power pole ― a rare sight for the ground-dwelling animal ― while she was evacuating with her family. They were able to save it, bringing it with them to higher ground and releasing it.

An evacuating family found an echidna up a power pole trying to escape floodwaters. They were able to save it. (Photo: Kelly West via WIRES)
An evacuating family found an echidna up a power pole trying to escape floodwaters. They were able to save it. (Photo: Kelly West via WIRES)

“Extreme weather events like the current floods can result in stress and shock for wildlife, with birds frequently most impacted as they become waterlogged and unable to fly,” a WIRES spokesperson told HuffPost.

“Seabirds and young sea turtles can also be swept off course and found exhausted on beaches or sometimes many kilometers inland.”

Wallabies, birds, bandicoots, koalas, kangaroos and their young are among the animals that have been reported as hurt, stranded, or needing to be rescued to WIRES, which is responding in both flood-hit states.

Rescuers expect call volumes to keep going up as waters recede and communities begin to pick up the pieces.

The greater impact, however, is still hard to predict.

“It’s a bit like what happened with the fires because we’ve never seen anything as bad before,” the WIRES spokesperson said in a phone call.

A representative for Queensland’s Department of Environment and Science said assessments were taking place across national parks and facilities to determine the extent of the damage. Its New South Wales counterpart said the situation was still unfolding.

In the Sunshine Coast region of Queensland, a local woman made the news for reviving a seemingly lifeless platypus that she found washed up near a bridge.

“I just kind of dropped in the knees and I don’t even know why I did it,” Mary Valley resident Lady Penelope told HuffPost. “I think I was just so over the loss, you know? And I just started doing those little two finger compressions they teach to do on babies that aren’t breathing. And much to my surprise, it just like sputtered and coughed and something came out its mouth and it started breathing.”

“I had a few happy tears and just sat down in the mud beside it.”

After about 10 minutes, “It sort of looked at me and blinked its eyes and then just walked back to the water,” she said.

A Sunshine Coast woman said a difficult week was made a little brighter when she managed to revive a platypus washed up in floodwaters. (Photo: Lady Penelope)
A Sunshine Coast woman said a difficult week was made a little brighter when she managed to revive a platypus washed up in floodwaters. (Photo: Lady Penelope)

The Gold Coast’s Currumbin Wildlife Hospital said Thursday it had been inundated with animals and had admitted more than 100 in just a few days.

Dr. Chris Brown, a well-known Australian vet and television host, said ground-dwelling animals like lizards, echidnas and snakes would struggle the most, though possums and birds were also being flooded out of tree hollows, and koala joeys separated from their mothers.

“Our wildlife have been through a lot over the last 4 years so let’s hope they can find a way through this challenge,” he wrote on Instagram.

In recent years, Australia has faced droughts, heatwaves, the devastating 2019-2020 wildfires, and now historic flooding. Climate scientists say these extreme weather events will become more likely as climate change worsens.

For wildlife that survives the floodwaters, the dangers are still real. The risks include car trauma (when dazed animals cross roads), hypothermia, or malnutrition from loss of food sources and habitat.

Brisbane-based wildlife group The Rescue Collective said one local rescuer had saved 13 koalas from floodwaters in three days.

The iconic animals were listed as endangered earlier this year amid plummeting populations, due to climate change and habitat loss. Tens of thousands of koalas were hurt or killed in the catastrophic bushfires two years ago.

Other footage from the Queensland capital city, Brisbane, showed a man swimming down a suburban street supporting a wallaby struggling to swim in deep water.

People who come across wildlife in floodwaters are instructed to contact vets, wildlife hospitals and rescue groups like WIRES. If safe to do so, rescuers suggest drying the animal with a towel, wrapping it in fabric to keep it warm, and placing it in a clean, covered box in a dark place while waiting for help to arrive.

Putting out boxes and towels can also provide shelter for animals that have fled to higher ground.

The longer-term impact of the flooding will be especially apparent in coastal waters, according to Richard Leck, WWF-Australia’s head of oceans.

For marine species, once the significant short-term risks of debris entanglement pass, pollution issues remain for many years. The far-reaching effects can cause changes in species’ distributions, damage to reefs, and population decline for marine life.

In Moreton Bay, a rich habitat for marine species northeast of Brisbane, “We’ve seen massive sediment pollution washing from the catchments that will smother seagrasses for foraging food for species like turtles and dugongs,” Leck said.

Dugongs are likely to move further offshore, “but research has found that turtles, they tend not to move,” Leck said. “It will be probably in six to 12 months ... you will start to see really significant impact on turtle species because they’ll simply not have enough food to eat.”

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

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