A Kiwi animal evacuation expert has shared video footage of an injured wallaby being treated for its injuries, in an effort to highlight the toll Australia's bushfires are having on wildlife.
Steve Glassey, of the charity Animal Evac NZ, spoke to Newshub on Tuesday from a kangaroo sanctuary outside of Batemans Bay in New South Wales.
"Their entire sanctuary has been devastated, leaving dozens of kangaroos, wallabies, and other animals affected by the fire," Glassey said.
"We have managed to come to the property, at the owner's request, and with our vets and team we're now undertaking search and rescue to find and locate injured animals that need to have veterinary treatment."
In the video shared by Glassey, a wallaby - named Shadow - can be seen being treated for her injuries.
"She was just dehydrated, she's been without food - her habitat's destroyed, so there is no food and water if they do survive the fire, and this is now a secondary issue for those animals that did survive."
The team can be seen feeding fruit to the animal and caring for its burns.
Glassey said he has worked in similar situations around the world but is blown away by the situation in Australia.
"The scale, the geographical size of this disaster is huge and so finding animals that have been fire-affected is like finding a needle in a haystack," he said.
Apart from the pain the animals suffer from their burns, the injuries have other serious consequences.
"Their ability to find water or travel distances to find new sources of food and water are certainly limited. It's a horrible impact to have on these animals."
The fires have killed a staggering amount of animals as they continue to rage across the country, burning across more than six million hectares so far.
According to one professor at the University of Sydney, as many as a billion animals are estimated to have been killed in the blazes.
On South Australia's Kangaroo Island alone, 25,000 koalas are feared dead.
Earlier this week, Australian Environment Minister Sussan Ley said the country's koala population has taken an "extraordinary hit" in the fires and the species could now be formally classified as "endangered".
Donations to Animal Evac NZ can be made here.
