Australian teens rescued a carload of koalas from an island where more than 25,000 of the animals have died

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• Micah Lovegrove, identified by Adelaide’s The Advertiser, and his cousin saved a carload of koalas on Australia’s Kangaroo Island after finding them near their family’s fire-damaged property. 

• Lovegrove said that he found the family of koalas while assessing the damage to his uncle’s home. He and his cousin picked the koalas up with towels, and drove them to a neighbor’s home to keep them safe. 

• A video posted to YouTube shows the burned koalas sitting in a car. A teen can be heard saying one of the koalas is a baby.

• An estimated 25,000 koalas have been killed by the fires on Kangaroo Island, The Guardian reported.

• More than a billion animals are believed to be dead across Australia as bushfires rage on. 

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Two Australian teenagers rescued a carload of koalas from a wildfire-ravaged island off the coast of south Australia.

In a  video that has gone viral, teenager Micah Lovegrove, identified by Adelaide’s The Advertiser, and his cousin were seen loading at least six koalas into their car on Kangaroo Island on January 2.

Lovegrove told The Advertiser that his uncle’s property had been destroyed by the fire, and while they were assessing the damage they found a group distressed koalas. 

Using a towel, he and his cousin picked up the koalas and transferred them into their car.

“Doing a little koala rescue… Just trying to collect as many live ones as we can,” one of the teenagers can be heard saying in video of the rescue, adding that at least one of the koalas was a baby.

The teens then took the koalas to a neighbor, who has a wildlife care permit.

 

On Kangaroo Island alone, it’s believed that 25,000 koalas have been killed by the fires, The Guardian reported.

Nature Conservation Council ecologist Mark Graham told parliament in December that koalas can’t move fast enough to escape the fires. Koalas also eat leaves from eucalyptus trees, which are highly flammable.

Chris Dickman, an ecologist at the University of Sydney, told HuffPost that more than a billion mammals, birds, and reptiles are feared dead in the hundreds of bushfires that have been burning in Australia since September.

The fires have razed more than 9.9 million acres across five states. At least 20 people have died.

The Australian government announced a $2 billion recovery fund on Monday that will help rebuild areas damaged by the fires.

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• Heartbreaking photos show animals impacted by Australia’s bushfires

• 3 graphics reveal the unimaginable scale of Australia’s fires

Read the original article on Insider

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