Koala Colonies Decimated<br />by Wildfires in Australia.<br />In recent weeks, over 100 fires have raced through eastern<br />Australia, destroying more than two million acres of land. .<br />In Port Macquarie, Australia, that land is an important<br />habitat for one of Australia’s most prized species: koalas. .<br />Unlike other animals who flee<br />from fires, koalas scale to the top<br />of trees and curl into a protective ball,<br />waiting for the danger to pass. .<br />As a result, an estimated 350 of the nearly<br />700 koalas living in the area have been "incinerated.".<br />According to Cheyne Flanagan, a clinical director at the Koala<br />Hospital in Port Macquarie, the recorded deaths are a "national<br />tragedy,” and the numbers are only expected to grow.<br />"We crunched the numbers up to 350, but these fires have gotten worse, and the numbers are probably higher … We are not finding bodies because they are incinerating to ash."<br />Cheyne Flanagan, via ‘USA Today’
