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Wildlife carers in Australia are ready to work around the clock over Christmas, preparing for more admissions particularly for baby animals stressed by the hot weather, bushfires, and drought.
Conditions have cooled over the past few days after devastating bushfires burnt more than four million hectares (9.88 million acres) of land across five states since September. Nine people have died during the bushfire emergency.
Hot weather is expected to pick up again during the weekend.
At Port Macquarie's Koala Hospital, carers will be looking after 72 koalas on Christmas Day, brought in after bushfires destroyed up to three-quarters of their habitat, Clinical Director Cheyne Flanagan said.
"We have teams on roster for capture if any are in trouble and they are available 24 hours a day," she said.
A donation page for the hospital that was set up in October to provide koalas in bushfire hit areas with drinking stations has been popular with Christmas shoppers, raising 2.1 million Australian dollars (1.45 million U.S. dollars), from an initial target of 25,000 Australian dollars. The extra funds will provide more drinking stations, a water carrying vehicle to replenish the drinking stations, and help establish a wild koala breeding program.
Fire and Rescue team rescue a Koala from fire in Jacky Bulbin Flat, New South Wales, November 21, 2019. /Reuters Photo
Gerry Ross, a manager at Healesville Sanctuary, in the southern Victoria state, said staff would be receiving injured wildlife at their hospital on Christmas day.
"We do work like an emergency hospital. We do notice a change when it's really hot. We do have animals come in that are heat affected, or with animals coming in with burned feet from hot roads," she said.
Australian native animals must first be seen by a veterinarian before they can be sent to a network of 2,600 carers attached to 28 branches of New South Wales state wildlife rescue group WIRES, said spokesman John Grant.
"Anecdotally, I think we have never seen it as bad as this, which is the drought, and then the bushfires on top of that," he said.
(Cover: A burnt koala rescued from Lake Innes Nature Reserve receives formula at the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital ICU in Port Macquarie, November 7, 2019. /Reuters Photo)
(CGTN)
