(Photo by Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images)
Sarah Price, who volunteers at the Australian wildlife rescue group WIRES (New South Wales Wildlife Information, Rescue, and Education Service), holds an injured joey in a makeshift “joey pouch” at her home outside Sydney. This joey’s parents most likely perished in the fires.
The devastating bushfires that raged across 15.6 million acres in the southern and eastern regions of Australia resulted in the deaths of at least one billion animals, according to conservative estimates.
Record donations from around the world are pouring into nonprofits like WIRES, the World Wildlife Fund-Australia, Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park, and the Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie to help animal survivors. Donors and volunteers alike understand that humans are not the only refugees from the growing climate crisis.
Read more stories by Marcie Bianco.