the whole area has been charred
there's no way a koala will be living
here anymore they're in real big trouble
oh that's adorable
[Music]
wow
my name's jack randall and i'm a
zoologist let's see how close i can get
here
australia's wild places and animals are
close to my heart
earlier this year the most devastating
wildfires on record swept through the
country
consuming over 18 million hectares of
land
and killing over a billion animals
i've been following this story since
then and have come to south australia to
see how people
and nature are fighting back and to find
out more about the fate of one of the
world's most beloved animals
the koala this forest used to be a
perfect habitat for koalas because it's
all eucalyptus trees
koalas were in huge populations but now
they're in real big trouble
the good thing is that there's been lots
of australians that really care for
their wildlife
and they've come to places like this to
find any koalas that needed to be saved
my first stop is the adelaide koala
rescue triage center
where a team of volunteers dedicate
their time to rescuing wild koalas in
need
ah that is the most adorable animal i've
ever seen in my life
he's cute even when he's not trying to
be how many koalas would you say you've
rescued over the bushfire period over
300.
wow 300 will they be released back into
the wild
we've released 80 koalas we do however
have some koalas that have no home to go
home to
it'll be quite a few years before those
habitats are
good enough for koalas to go back into
now a lot of these rescued koalas need
serious medical care
and the adelaide koala and wildlife
hospital provide just that
even now while koalas are being brought
in injured
dehydrated or without homes
so this is ashley she was picked up
yesterday she was found in the inside of
a burnt out tree
so what we'll do is we'll do a full
check over start to finish
there actually aren't any burns to her
pores which is really good so hopefully
she wasn't around when the significant
fire went through
although at first glance ashley seems
perfectly healthy
nurse natasha worries that smoke
inhalation might have damaged her lungs
she does have a really quite muffled
chest sound so normally you can hear the
air
moving around in her chest she's just
covered in in
in charcoal imagine all of that being
inhaled into the lungs cannot be good
for any koala so what do you think's the
chances of her managing to survive and
get back out into the wild
well if we can get everything under
control for about 80 chance that she'll
go well we just have to make sure that
we can keep her pain-free
and supportive care throughout her
healing process 80 well i'm definitely
happy with that that's amazing
ashley is one of the lucky ones to have
been found and taken to the hospital
but what about those that are still out
there
it's one of the hottest days of the year
and koalas don't do well in the heat
so what's the best thing to do if you
see a dehydrated koala
i've seen that people have been feeding
koalas water
by her that you're supposed to um give
water in a bowl right
ebola in your scooped hands yeah yeah
otherwise they can actually
um inhale it into their lungs and then
it can cause secondary infections like
pneumonia and things and
it is quite life-threatening in that
case wow i must be careful
i set off to norton summit where there
is a chance i'll be able to check on any
koalas that might be struggling with the
heat
this area has been untouched by the
fires so it's one of the last refuges
for the koalas living in this state
usually they'll be high up in the trees
but if they're lowered down it means
they're overheating i've actually got
some water with me
and i'm gonna offer that water to a
koala that might be really really
thirsty
so that is a koala poo they only eat the
leaves in these eucalyptus trees
they actually just absorb as much
moisture from her food as possible
there's very little moisture left in
there
it smells a bit like eucalyptus
i've actually heard that the koalas they
like sitting by the side of a road
believe it or not i think it's a bit
cooler down there so i'm gonna go up
top of this valley and there's a road up
there so i'm gonna move along there
looking for any koalas that might be
there wow you got one
it's a koala in the tree really really
close down to the ground
it must be extremely extremely hot
an old aboriginal language koala
actually means
no drink koalas don't normally need to
drink any water at all
they get all their water from the leaves
but the problem is
it's so hot it's so dry that the
moisture content in the leaves is so low
so they're not getting as much water as
they would usually if he's really
dehydrated
he may take some water from me
he's a bit confused he's like what is
that human doing up in the tree
hello mate i got a bowl so he can just
lick out the water
because if it takes too much water in
one go they can actually drown in water
so you have to be really careful
you're very thirsty
wow we've got a very dehydrated koala
here to take that water from my hands
but that might be enough just to get him
through this real
real hard dry season
it's nice to meet you mate good luck
this was a wildlife encounter that will
stay with me for the rest of my life
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seeing this koala later on in the
evening high up in his tree
it filled me with hope
but until these forest habitats are
restored
the future of the whole of australia's
koala population
hangs in the balance
wow look at that many of these trees
you'd look at and think that's it
they're gone forever
that's not the case this is new life
that's coming to this tree
i reckon in a few years time i'll come
back here and see this place thriving
again with lots of wildlife
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nature's resilience to bounce back is
just remarkable
but only when combined with a solid
reforestation programme
and the incredible efforts of so many
australian wildlife warriors
will it be enough to give australia's
most adored species
hope for the future
[Music]
you