The number of animals feared to have died from Australia's bushfires has been raised to a billion, up from 480 million last week, Vox and Axios reported.
Speaking to Huffington Post, an ecologist from the University of Sydney, Chris Dickman, stated that the 480 million number was a conservative figure, exclusive to the Australian state of New South Wales, and excluded wildlife groups without population data.
800 million have perished within New South Wales alone
Dickman further pointed out that the figure of 480 million dead animals had since risen to 800 million for the state and included mammals, birds and reptiles but not bats, frogs and invertebrates.
As such, once these populations were included, it is "without any doubt at all" that more than a billion animals have perished, with this new figure being "a very conservative estimate" he added.
He was echoed by Stuart Blanch, an environmental scientist from World Wildlife Fund Australia, who stated that 1 billion was a modest guess given the extent to which the fires have expanded.
Koalas among the worst-hit by the bushfires
Thus far, koalas have been among the worst-hit wildlife by the disaster.
Vox highlighted that about 8,000 or one-third of all koalas in New South Wales have died from the bushfires, while around 30 per cent of their habitat has been destroyed.
Additionally, an estimated half of the 50,000 koala population on Kangaroo Island has also perished in the flames.
The Straits Times (ST) reported that this has hit the species particularly hard as the Kangaroo island koalas are also the only population free from the chlamydia disease-- a fatal bacterial infection that causes blindness and infertility.
According to BBC, the numbers are derived from a previous report by Dickman in 2007:
"It estimated that there were an average of 17.5 mammals, 20.7 birds and 129.5 reptiles per hectare (10,000 square metres, so a square 100m on each side - about the size of a rugby pitch).
They've then multiplied that by the amount of land hit by the fires."
How serious are the bushfires?
As of Jan. 6 the combined size of the bushfires are 60,000 sq km -- twice the size of Belgium or roughly 83 times the size of Singapore.
The haze from the flames has also turned the skies above New Zealand yellow and reached as far as Chile and Argentina in South America, over 11,000km away, turning the skies grey, Deutsche Welle reported.
Why are the fires so serious?
The continent is currently in the throes of a heatwave—temperatures have soared to record-breaking heights in the past three months.
Mid-December 2019 also saw Australia’s hottest day in history, with the mercury rising to 41.9°C.
The flames are also being fanned by strong winds of up to 60km/h.
Notwithstanding the shortage of rainfall, which has been decreasing since 2017, these combination of factors has likely resulted in one of Australia’s most urgent calamities.
Experts state that climate change is potentially exacerbating the situation. As conditions become hotter and drier, bushfire seasons will last longer and become more intense.
Some fires have also been deliberately started
On top of that, some of the flames have been deliberately started, with at least 24 people having been charged for doing so within the state of New South Wales, CNN reported.
In a statement released on Jan. 6, the New South Wales police department said that legal action had been taken against 183 people since Nov. 8 for bushfire-related offences.
Apart from the 24 people charged for deliberately starting bushfires, 47 people have accused of discarding a lighted cigarette or match on land, while 53 others have been accused of failing to comply with a total fire ban.
Top photo by Brenton Edwards/ AFP