Disastrous flood threatens Australian animals as habitats lost

While the shadow of the extreme weather system in Australia's east coast hasn't faded away, the damage to Australian animals' habitats is expected to be considerable.

Dr. Margaret Cook from the University of Sunshine Coast (USC) who is specialized in natural disasters told Xinhua on Friday that although it's hard to quantify yet, the loss of mounts of animal habitats is considerable.

"We have lost considerable amounts of it. Natural disasters have a huge human cause, but it's often the animals that bear the biggest impact," Cook said.

Cook said the disaster won't affect marine animals too much now, but it will cause long-term harm for some animals which rely on the vegetation. Even if they survive, it's still hard for animals to find a new territory to live in.

"The vegetation needs to regrow, and it will be quite lush, and we've seen whole trees cleared away and trees washed downstream. So that will take decades for those trees to go back," Cook added.

"They got their territories as well. They got their food supplies. Now their food supplies are going to be compromised for quite some time. If they eat a particular berry that's now washed away, it'll be at least a year before it goes back perhaps."

Thousands of animals have died in the recent Queensland and NSW (New South Wales) floods, with rescue services unable to make it to all calls for help due to flooded and debris-blocked roads, according to Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) in Queensland said it had received more than 500 animal rescue calls, and the past few days have seen over 600 native animals making their way to the RSPCA Wildlife Hospital.

"Orphaned joeys, sick koalas, exhausted possums and more are being rescued every day by our RSPCA Animal Ambulance," the organization wrote in a statement.

The Rescue Collective, a Brisbane-based conservation group, said they had done hundreds of supporting work in the past few days, as their role is to guarantee the supplies for wildlife carers and groups.

"We help them (wildlife carers) with the fundraising, the feeding, transporting, and we go out looking for the animals to send those out to specialists because in a tough time like this, many carers don't have time to do such work," president of the organization Nicole Blums told Xinhua.

Blums added that although the severe weather has begun to ease, pressure lingers because many animals in care centers might take a long time for people to look after. "Joey kangaroo, for example, needs to be in care for a year or a year and a half, before it can be released." ■