Although it’s understandable that Australia’s bushfire crisis would seem like a distant memory with everything else that’s going on right now, it was only at the beginning of March that the New South Wales Rural Fire Service declared that all fires were out.
As Good Morning America reported , the fires raged throughout the nation for 240 days before this happened. In that time, at least 25 people lost their lives, 2,500 homes were destroyed and 13 million acres of land was scorched.
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But while these were tragic results for Australia’s human population, the bushfires also devastated the nation’s wildlife, with over 1 billion animals dying in the disaster.
As 800 million of these creatures were in New South Wales alone, it’s only natural that those in the region would seek a sign of hope that the region will one day recover.
Today, the staff of one wildlife park thinks they have it.
Soon after the fires went out, the Australian Reptile Park in New South Wales found itself having to close.
The animals have been cared for as attentively as ever, but the park had to take the same cue as the rest of the world in the interest of public health and safety.
However, the park announced in a Facebook post that it will reopen on June 1 with additional precautions.
And when guests arrive, they’ll likely hear a lot about a new friend who park staff welcomed into the world on May 26.
As they wrote in a separate post , “Our very first koala of the season has popped out of Mums pouch to say hello!”
This also marks the first koala birth to take place there since the bushfire crisis began.
For that reason, she is the cause of not only a lot of excitement, but also hope for the future of Australia’s wildlife.
Her consideration as a symbol of hope was likely a major reason why the park’s keepers have named her Ash.
Her birth can be seen as a rising from the ashes of a tragedy that devastated her species, which reflects what the nation at large must do after eight months of demoralizing terror.
h/t: Facebook | Australian Reptile Park
