https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/australias-bushfires-have-likely-devastated-wildlife-and-the-impact-will-only-get-worse/

As Australia’s unprecedentedly catastrophic bushfires rage, the emerging images are apocalyptic: skies turned blood red by smoke, families sheltering on boats to escape the flaming shore, and landscapes littered with the charred bodies of iconic animal species such as kangaroos and koalas. The plight of the continent’s famously unique fauna has garnered particular attention around the world. One estimate says that just in the state of New South Wales, about 800 million animals have likely been affected by the fires. But it is unclear how many have perished outright.

Fires have been part of the Australian landscape for thousands of years. Many species and ecosystems have evolved to cope, with animals surviving in tree hollows and other refuges or repopulating burned areas from nearby unaffected land. But the severity and size of this season’s fires may limit the effectiveness of those strategies, several ecologists say. And as climate change fuels longer fire seasons and more frequent, intense fires, it could become increasingly difficult for ecosystems to bounce back. These changes “are potentially quite a major risk to our biodiversity,” says Sam Banks, a conservation biologist at Charles Darwin University in Australia.