You probably already know about the horrific bushfires that have been taking place in Australia for a while now. Over a billion animals, including kangaroos and koalas, have died in the fires in addition to humans. It is absolutely heartbreaking to watch.
As the news continues to break out about the fires each and every day, everyone all over the globe is pitching in to help out in whatever way they can, whether that means donating to organizations like the Australian Red Cross or raising awareness about the tragic issue.
Locals have also been dedicating all of their time to saving the beloved animals that roam throughout Australian nature. Many people have taken it upon themselves to create water stations for the animals where the temperatures are higher, and people have also taken some animals under their wings, literally picking them up by hand and bringing them to safety.
Two Australians by the names of 19-year-old Micah and 18-year-old Caleb are teens that have quickly transformed into heroes, as they have been rescuing koalas all over. Now, everyone on the Internet is taking notice of their heroic actions and showering them with well-deserved praise.
Micah and Caleb are cousins who made it their mission to drive around in their car and rescue as many koalas as they possibly could. Their plan was to sweep them up and then nurse them back to health.
Once the koalas were healthy enough, the two boys would send them back into their home in the wilderness.
According to the boys, about 60 percent of the koalas they found were already burned to death.
The boys also shared a short video that showed them driving around in their car, picking up koalas. It quickly went viral, amounting to over a million views.
In it, one of them can be heard saying: “This is our little koala rescue. Just trying to collect as many live ones as we can.”
“A university in Sydney estimates that near 500 million animals have been killed by the fires since September. Half a billion. So many of our animals, wombats, koalas, crocs, platypus, etc. are endangered or threatened species. I don’t think people understand the scale of that number. I’m not sure if our country’s ecosystem and biosphere will recover from this, I really don’t,” Ben Jameson, a fellow Australian, told Bored Panda.
It has also been said that other fellow Australians have been bringing as many animals they could find — many of them being koalas — to organizations like the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park.
“At least a third of what has been brought in we’ve had to euthanize, unfortunately,” Sam Mitchell, the park’s co-owner said. “We are seeing many burns to hands and feet—fingernails melted off. For some, the burns are just too extreme.”
It is beyond sad to even think about all of the death and burning that is currently going on. We’re doing everything we can to help, but so many animals have already passed.
It is people like Caleb and Micah who leave the world with a glimmer of hope.
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