It's difficult to believe that this thread was started almost a year ago (thankyou Chemar) and Australia seemed like hell on earth. It's different this year with La Nina weather system and a rainy summer predicted, especially where I live anyway. Then the last message that Kiwi posted regarding the rain was around a month before the WHO made a declaration of the pandemic.
So, I belong to WIRES which is a wildlife rescue organization very active in the area where I used to live. I'd read so many sad stories and some really positive stories coming out of the rescues that were done, but then reality hit home again today as I was reading a report from the World Wide Fund for Nature (World Wildlife Fund)regarding the impact the fires of 2019/2020 had on our wildlife.
Info below is from WWF. I didn't want to post the url for the report because it showed triggering images.
<<3 Billion animals (mammals, reptiles, birds, and frogs) were killed or displaced.
143 million mammals,
2.46 billion reptiles,
181 million birds,
and 51 million frogs occupied areas hit by the fires.>>
An unprecedented tragedy and it was all so quickly forgotten because of the wretched virus. Unbelievably sad.