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december 29 teams last radians bushfires spreading across bigger and biggest ways so planned for wildlife researcher kelly it is becoming clear just how perilous the situation is. she decides to evacuate the 12 koala bears that she has been studying for years before the flames reach the blue mountains it is the 1st time that she has been forced to take this kind of action but. you know i'd be all over the floor. with a small group of x. ponson volunteers she manages to. save

a small but still significant number of koalas that survival is important for the conservation of the species. hundreds of thousands of other animals are also in immediate danger. area. where they're at.

yeah so bad. but. one month after the evacuation of the koala bands we meet up with kelly again on the edge of the national park where she wants . she's still unable to visit the most heavily bound area for safety reasons. there guy back then blazes was still raging in 2 australian states and had already destroyed 80 percent of the blue mountains national park the park is part of a unesco world heritage area and home to the country's most genetically diverse

population of koalas. pretty heartbreaking to say especially once you get to know koalas you know we give them names who go volunteers that come out to help track them where we had to we were really lucky that we got in and got some out before the fires that had radio collars on them and so all but 2 we've got one koala on the on burnt side we hope is still here and then one that we had to leave down in the area he was too far and it would be an all day just to get one and we got 4 or 5 that day so we really came to get it and see how he's doing but knowing there's so many through here and knowing it's such an important population that's nationally significant it's yet been utterly heartbreaking to watch it happen. the research is real mission is to devise strategies to help protect the species from possible extinction but instead she finds herself giving 1st aid to animals that have escaped the flames.

yeah. down a bit i think what's happening is that working can stations with water and food are now essential for the d. hydrated injured marsupial survival spin isn't it. we can also put a rope on the bottom to guide it as it goes up. when i'm going to check. any. more territory. the colors come off. don't really want to hear that.

we had a story of hope here in the mountains were finding a lot of koalas where we didn't expect they were young and growing populations and they're in in in a protected area that's protected from habitat loss and now we've lost 4 for the 5 populations that have been impacted by. kelly came to us i think it was around the 23rd of december. it was the day the township of the open which is about a 15 minute draw from he was impacted by severe far conditions they lost houses the conditions were terrible. she was found by the far far as at about midnight in the

area of force that had been completely burnt out the amazing thing about her is that coming out of that area she has not been. morgan film part has been working closely with kelly lead for years he has even named one of the bands in his cat kelly in how ana carried a koala has recovered from the problems caused by smoke inhalation bans both kelly and her companion marine are suffering from a bacterial infection that focal wanders can end in death it's a real privilege to have these animals come in and stay with us it's a lot of stress as a carer because you want to help everyone but you can unfortunately we can't always help these animals to the point that they can be released sometimes we had to injured all that to sick obviously the best part of doing this is that you get to let them go and take them back when i should be because this isn't where they

should be back out in the wall is where there's got to go out and make more more koalas. you know he's years of looking after wild animals morgan has never had so much to do one of the main challenges is finding the right eucalyptus leaves for them to eat. he says he is distraught and disappointed by the way australian politicians have failed to acknowledge the dangers of climate change for so many years far is not near as tried by any stretch but certainly the skyll and the intensity of the far as it was saying now is something i don't think any of us have signed the tractors will say the strike is always advise and that an arguably that's correct but not like this it's either warming just not used to getting the scale of animals that we've got coming in right now as a result of these far as it's a national trend or international tragedy i mean these animals don't just belong to

us it's trying to belong to the world. and just the the sky and the loss is an imagined it will. have they're going to bounce back and it's not obviously it's not just the koalas it's always try and wildlife affected here and the bush as well . the bush fires raged for 240 days destroying more than 12000000 hectares of bush and releasing 400000000 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the. wildfires are a seasonal occurrence in australia global warming has extended those seasons and made the blazes more severe. 3 years australia has been experiencing extremely

mountainous and dry summers. 1000000000 animals are estimated to have died in last summer's mines according to experts it's a figure that has shocked the world. it was one of the most destructive environmental catastrophes of our times. an army of volunteers vets and scientists joined together to help in an incredible act of solidarity. the.

australia was caught unprepared and was confronted with its own vulnerability it became apparent that it did not have enough resources and effective strategies to protect its unique ecosystems the government has listed 113-1000 species that needed emergency intervention to ensure that survival after the devastating fires. could come get a little. bit i've. never met all the meno the quality of us

your animals came to us than expected i thought that many died in the flames or had to be put to sleep because they couldn't be saved or badly when the getting really really going to work out that we triaged animals with birds happened if you get out of it we consider whether treatment is worthwhile or not and unfortunately i very rarely were not to be saved but we decided to put to sleep better words with more than 20 percent burns as treatment in those cases has little chance of success or is very protracted. animals have inbuilt behavior to protect themselves in fires they follow nature's lessons in the event of danger or that the one bats generally hide under ground and koalas climb up trees higher and higher when they become a normal fire is usually burn in the middle section and travel rapidly developing out the eucalyptus trees are full of oil and the fire moves on and the treetops remain intact and when the creatures are badly affected by smoke inhalation they

can survive with this year the fires were so ferocious that the trees burned in their entirety of all that the in the koalas were roasted alive in the treetops on the. italian vat the renzo cross is director of the university of sydney's avian reptile and exotic pet hospital which provides canta wildlife. he's one of the few people able to treat the little researched koalas today he is looking after a fonzie a koala who was found catching on to a tree in a river although he has no obvious severe injuries the creature still isn't back on its feet. we're going to take some of a cerebral spinal fluid and send it to a lab for testing. we want to know whether it contains inflammatory cells or bacteria which would cause an satellite us or meningitis to be ignored because in that case we will of course have to treat the animal to like a bit of

a bit of it. at least the bushfires have given scientists an opportunity to gather useful data and the global headlines of forced the all foreigners to provide funds to help save wildlife. silicosis if everything goes well but it will hopefully develop new strategies now that we can use to help australian wildlife in future fires with the genius of not just to save animals directly but also for example by issuing guidelines to prevent those kinds of fires every year and to know how to respond when the fires become threatening that's just as important as the treatment of the animals themselves the prevention is better than a cure but any of them in your head that. have been living in sydney's taronga zoo since their evacuation plan they are patiently awaiting their return to the wild. they're feeling a lot better and while

a climatized and no longer dehydrated. thank you. that we've just gone through and removed a few of their branches that we found out yesterday what it does they are the lucky ones and they are now in good hands nick performance has been looking after. 20 years now but even so particular responsibility in this situation 1st few days no doubt you know there were some settling in stress that they had koalas endured they were captured from very tall trees in the wall and put into little carry crates and then transported a few hours by car so all of that was foreign to them so of course they were exhibiting some stress what we've seen in those few weeks that have unfolded since is that they're quite comfortable animals now would change their husbandry practices to be is mainly disturbing and so we only come here and sit on of the day so the animals become accustomed to that we're seeing them demonstrate normal

behavior is any good genetic population that we can hold on to is just being made so much more vital. at least 8000 koalas dying in the state of new south wales party do sounds to me did that the country's entire population of the creatures has been decimated. their numbers were already in decline before the bushfires because of endemic disease the destruction of their habitats by uncontrolled logging and illegal wildlife trafficking. while as a species was in their millions european settlement so we're talking only just over 200 years and now we're a seeing such a huge population of quine that we're now within estimates of 830-0000 now obviously significantly less than that due to the recent fires so when you consider such a small amount to what otherwise they have that could occupy they are they are in

dire straits like there are species in the climate and certainly you know worthy is being listed as threatened species it's taken a very catastrophic event like these large fires for people to actually realise the situation that i was there it's a little bit assuaged. after months of finance the deluge of rainfall i followed brought only partial relief. the worst france in 3 decades brought new problems to the beleaguered country. where the events of this kind could become the new normal.

in quick succession australia found itself going from one extreme to another the signs of an ecosystem that has been thrown off balance. which could recover but only stone age. in the midst of the chance and destruction the sun signs of life and knew how to. do right on what they were doing a couple different things basically this is to inform us of putting out koalas fact the ones we took at the to taronga so we're trying to work out if we need to put

them back in the un burnside or if we can put them back in this low intensity band section where we got them from so they can be might be bouncing back so i will be going behind doing scat surveys and looking at how many sketches we find in the different quality vegetation and you guys will be a doing a search and rescue lion looking out for koalas so and if we find fresh scat we'll call you in to help go spotting for the actual koala that has the. the people and say we just have to stay in a tight group today you now said rescue lines i was out radio safety g.p.s. devices well i'm so just thankful i know that it has been 3 months since the coal miners were evacuated from the blue mountains and now it is possible for kelly to set forth again but in certain areas of the national long. yeah that's what i suppose. it's not that we felt this cult. is one of the dogs on the frontline of the koala search and rescue mission he can detect by smell things

that we cannot see and that makes him indispensable worth so much if not. more. so he's finding some really small fragments lately. that you know they go off one save their life fairly very much so you're old dried there so that's half a dried koalas that you also are all one so probably pretty far right but i tried tried. for my life. stands yeah that one good dope it. gets him for a smudge. kid that old soon to be green in there.

so. maybe waco too. we haven't. heard since the right yeah more race and so here we've got surviving koalas so it he's finding older deposits at this site where we know those quotes have been through more recent days are probably in a way courtroom so indicates the surviving animals here which is great i can say moving. the discovery off the fresh droppings motivates the volunteers to comb the bush for commons. the excursion is also intended to us sas whether parents are now foliage to nourish the animals in the wild all these information helps the research is to map the scorched zone and compare the data with that gathered before the bushfires it helps

them gain a clearer picture of the blazes impact. the town to determine how many animals remain in the area but unless 100 tanks and is taken the beloved koala could disappear by the year 2050. their fair. share of the verbal. war. or found very very. well spotted. this hidden by the canopy out there. in the old. yeah so he's got a little dot mark on the chest there. so you can say he's a male and generally looks alright now is in good condition no signs of any injuries. so we will leave him in peace. healthy looking to

have a look straight up. so this is what we call a non-callable on tags so it's a new koala one we haven't seen before because it we took the most day out before the 5 and got 2 animals in here that do have tags on at the moment so most of the men who are going to find what we knew we know me when we write a track we do find new animals every now and then because we know there's a pretty good population in here that would also expect some might have moved out from the fire front up into this area as well so whether this is a resident or a koala that moved in we are not sure. for cali this is just the beginning of a painstaking repopulation process one requiring a lot of time and a lot of energy to go to get probably one more week of imagery satellite imagery to look at chlorophyll content and just check we have i've got exact locations of where we took them from so we can see if that where we took them from is a good golly that that's good moisture content and good canopy in there for them

and in that case of put them straight back to we got them from for some of them we're not used to put them if they came from really that hit patch we might choose to put them back on the other side that right nearby so it's just coming down to those details now exactly we're going to put them back 2 months after our 1st visit we meet morgan again it is stopped raining the bushfires have been extinguished and walk is proceeding so the stuff is already as you feel it that you know has a 3rd koala in his calf so when he took him in 7 weeks ago he was a dance door. has recovered quickly and is now ready to be released into the wild again unlike kelly and marie who we met back in january. think you're starting to win and then something happens to the girls that had some recent issues with skin problems through what we think is their station of pick up the head after all the right events that happened on whether it's correlated with

this explosion of pigs. neither of them are sick comedia. and by eating really well the getting also white little marine he has gained a key ally in the last sort of 4 weeks and the other one's going about half of your life that it is putting on a little while and otherwise to be free we already today relates. morgan has to camp for the daily and disinfect the cage every 3 days to find the to confess station but he's not 99 counting town returning dick wadhams to the habitat is a process that needs patients and sound preparation. part of the protocol is the quality get any tag and each year when we record the color of the tag and the number and they also get a mark right you inserted sort of initial the blood and that then and isles off that if this animal gets sick again or gets injured and comes into chaos then we know who she is and more medical history.

so i will be looking at a lace another 4 weeks in kate to treat this skin condition now and that's providing it responds to the treatment that we're giving. well it's ok and we're going to catch it i think it's all right. you know. it's a fade. but with animals like this unexpected things can happen and that sort of blows out in maraton of these animals trying careful and you cannot be tied and potato but you've got to you know he just wants to commit to it you've got to keep going until the job's for easter. and beyond use of the wound. has become a symbol of both global feelings and.

but. there this is cally to her squalor about to lay surgeons in and trying to do for a few months now taking a back the right way we courted from. the. commies return home without incident and she remains completely oblivious to one

significance to research is struggling to save her species. the emergence of covert 19 rushes the other koalas to be released sooner than expected. this shows how connected on story use to that of our environment. and environment from which we are responsible. so i think again that's the way this is that nobody said unemployment's and we certainly haven't we obviously need biodiversity 70 percent of our medicines come from night in a way highly dependent on it whether we realize it or not say i'm hoping that the tide changes and we do a mall before it really impacts us more than it has some and this is a big impact for strata most people are affected by the pfizer knew someone who was affected by the fires say now's a good time to change that and i think a lot of us will be pushing for that.

she gone. now triumphs in the. club from the west of the german capital to. the big bible from. labor from 6 edges closer to the top taking down saddam blank shot to a 2nd place in the tape. 13 t.w. . bases

data of any news live from britain is our was from launching its coronavirus vaccination program the u.k. is the 1st country to roll out the back same developed by biotech fine and is hoping it'll knock the beginning of the end of the pandemic but he'll be 1st in line to get the shots also coming out quick.