Last week it was estimated that 480 million animals had perished in the bushfires in Australia. That figure is outdated?-?now that more than 15 million acres of land has been torched, it is estimated that one billion animals have already been killed in the bushfires.?
The first estimate of 480 million animals being killed, was made by Chris Dickman a biodiversity expert at the University of Sydney, last week.
Talking about the recent figures he said to?Huffington Post, ¡°The original figure ¨D the 480 million ¨D was based on mammals, birds, and reptiles for which we do have densities, and that figure now is a little bit out of date. It¡¯s over 800 million given the extent of the fires now ¨D in New South Wales alone.¡±
Evidences of some wild and farm animals being burned are doing rounds on the Internet - kangaroos, koalas and other animals have been burned alive.?
Other animals like bats or birds might not have been burned alive, but are facing destruction because of the loss of their natural habitat.?
The new figures count frogs, and invertebrates too. According to Dickman ¡°without any doubt at all¡± the number of animals lost tops 1 billion. ¡°Over a billion would be a very conservative figure,¡± he said.?
Stuart Blanch, an environmental scientist at WWF Australia, agrees that 1 billion is a modest estimate, given how far the fires have spread. However, some ecologists believe that the estimate of 1 billion might be inflated. They agree that many animals have been affected because of loss of their habitat, but the number of dead animals might be less.?
No matter what the case, given the extent of wildfires, more and more animals, land and human life will be destroyed, if not curbed soon.?