Australia is facing the worst bushfires that have already taken lives of many. The continent is battling with scorching heat and a long drought that is taking its toll on animals as well. Locals have complained that the animals have been entering communities and wreaking havoc as they look for any available water source, including taps and tanks.
Officials in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in northwest South Australia agreed to the “aerial cull” after listening to requests for help from residents who said they saw “extremely large groups of camels and other feral animals in and around communities” in the APY Lands. APY, in a Facebook statement said camels and other wild and undomesticated animals are searching for water in the region. But camels are the “primary” targets of the cull. APY held a board meeting to discuss the animals, and the cull was approved for Wednesday. It will last five days.
“With the current ongoing dry conditions the large camel congregations threatening the APY communities and infrastructure, immediate camel control is needed,” APY said on Facebook. According to the reports, the authorities are targeting 10,000 camels as they are the main cause of devastation. The government will send helicopters to kill up to 10,000 camels in a five-day campaign which starts from 8 Jan, Wednesday.
Temperatures in the region have reached about 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) and the survival is becoming difficult. The disaster has killed more than a dozen people and caused the displacement or deaths of 480 million animals, according to the University of Sydney researchers. A spokesperson for the South Australia Department of Environment and Water resource said the increasing number of camels had caused several problems in the region. The animals are also being culled over concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, as they emit methane equivalent to one ton of carbon dioxide per year, according to the reports.
The operation to control the camel population, estimated to total 1.2 million across the country, is expected to take five days. Their carcasses will be left to dry off before they are burned or buried. Camels from India and Afghanistan during the 19th century were introduced to Australia as they were used for transportation and construction. If culling did not take place, the camel population would double every eight to 10 years.
Conservationists and wildlife experts fear the bushfires may have wiped off entire species of animals. Populations of small marsupials called dunnarts, along with glossy black cockatoos, may have disappeared entirely after fires burned a third of Kangaroo Island, which has been left a “scorched wasteland”. Heidi Groffen, an ecologist and coordinator for the nonprofit Kangaroo Island Land for Wildlife, said the mouse-like marsupials are too small to outrun wildfires and the population of around 300 may have been wiped out. The 50,000-strong koala population on the island has also suffered devastating losses, with as much as half the population believed to have been killed by the fires.
New figures have been released today by QFES that, sadly, brings the total area burned this fire season to 10.7m hectares nationwide. That’s larger than Portugal or South Korea. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his conservative government have faced much criticism for not doing enough to address the climate issues domestically and internationally. On Monday, the prime minister announced that his government will be committing $2 billion Australian dollars over two years to bushfire recovery.
