At the beginning of the year, the bushfires in Australia were making waves around the world and everyone was sure that it would be one of the defining moments of the year. Of course, then the pandemic happened, and it’s clearly been a wild ride ever since.
Nonetheless, Australia and the animals who reside there have been through horrible things due to the blazing fires and are still suffering the consequences.
Countless animals died or are now in danger, and tons of natural habitat has been burnt to ashes.
In particular, the koala population of Australia has had a very rough time. Scientists estimate that the fires have cost more than 8,000 koala lives, along with over thirty percent of their living space now completely gone.
According to scientific estimations, over a billion animals were killed in total as a result of the recent Australian wildfires.
Luckily, a lot of efforts were made to save as many animals as possible, and people and volunteers have come up with plans and ideas to support koalas in particular.
Koalas were sent to animal hospitals and other safe havens such as sanctuaries. Sometimes even regular people volunteered to take care of a distressed koala who was able to escape the burning forests, often within an inch of their lives.
Dogs were actually a major help in rescues, as they were excellent at finding people or animals who needed urgent help in the midst of the carnage.
One of those dogs was Keli, who managed to find and rescue a tiny baby koala who weighed less than a pound.
The poor little animal was completely malnourished, dehydrated, and in pretty bad shape. Keli managed to find the scared animal near a badly damaged area that the koala previously called home.
Right away, rescuers decided to rush the poor koala to a specialized medical facility, the Koala Hospital Port Macquarie. Doctors believed that he was currently dealing with a fungal infection, and a pretty severe and life-threatening one, at that.
As for his family, rescuers had no idea what happened to them. It’s unsure if they succumbed to the fire and got separated or if they abandoned their baby because of his medical condition.
One thing was for sure though; this tiny koala was completely alone and had to rely on the rescuers to make it out of the woods.
He weighed 9.7 ounces and was in abysmal shape, the rescue didn’t occur a day too soon.
Luckily, the animal rescuers, as well as the hospital staff, were extremely patient and caring for the little furball. In fact, after his fungal infection was treated successfully, you could tell he was finally regaining his energy.
The koala’s fur started growing again and his weight climbed back to acceptable levels.
“Just a brighter moment in all the tragedy in Australia at the moment we wanted to share something good. Meet Koala Street Keli who was found abandoned on the ground on 8th September 2019, in very poor shape with a fungal infection and only weighing 275 grams. Look at Keli today a whopping 1 kg in weight, the fungal infection has gone and all his fur is regrowing,” the animal hospital posted on their Facebook page.
The difference is just night and day, and the hospital kept us all up to date on how he was doing.
Luckily, there is still some safe habitat left for the koala to go to, meaning he can return back to the wild whenever he’s fully recovered and ready to be released.
“It’s still early days yet, we will get very excited when he makes 2.5 kg and its time for him to come into the “dehumanising trees ” in preparation for release back to the wild. Release will not happen until the cooler months, and thankfully there is still some good habitat left in selected locations,” the hospital staff concluded.
Of course, the koala also needed to have a name.
The shelter staff decided to name him “Keli”, after the brave dog that rescued him.
Thanks to this four-footer, this once tiny baby koala who was inches away from death, is now thriving. What a remarkable rescue story!
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Just a brighter moment in all the tragedy in Australia at the moment we wanted to share something good. Meet Koala…
Posted by Koala Hospital Port Macquarie onThursday, January 2, 2020
