森林火災で負傷したコアラ、仮設病院に次々搬送　豪カンガルー島

【カンガルー島ＡＦＰ＝時事】豪サウスオーストラリア州カンガルー島に設置された仮設の動物病院には連日、多数の負傷したコアラがネコ用キャリーバッグや洗濯かごで運ばれてくる。中には保護スタッフにしがみついて来院するコアラもいる。（写真は仮設病院で治療を受け、かごの中で眠るコアラ）
　カンガルー島に壊滅的な被害をもたらしている森林火災で負傷し、緊急治療を必要とするコアラがあまりにも多い。そのため個々に名前を付ける時間もなく、コアラたちは番号で呼ばれている。
　だが、救護されたすべてのコアラが助かるわけではない。安楽死を選択せざるを得ないほどの重傷を負っているコアラも多い。
　この仮設病院で治療を行うボランティア団体のチーム代表、スティーブン・セルウッド氏によると、今回の森林火災の発生以前、カンガルー島には約４万６０００頭のコアラがいたとみられるという。
　セルウッド氏は、残っているのはわずか９０００頭で、この数は「かなり衝撃的」だと述べた。
　森林火災によりカンガルー島の半分近くが壊滅し、コアラ生息地の８割が失われたと推定されている【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/01/16-12:39）

Dozens of injured koalas arrive at the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park's makeshift animal hospital each day in cat carriers, washing baskets or clinging to wildlife carers.
Injured in bushfires that have ravaged the wildlife haven off the coast of South Australia state, there are so many marsupials currently requiring urgent treatment that carers don't have time to give them names -- they are simply referred to by a number.
Among them is Koala Number 64, who was brought in with burns to all four of his paws.
Stretched out on a surgical table in a bustling tent, he has been sedated so the wounds can be examined and treated.
It's healing nicely, says veterinarian Peter Hutchison, explaining the koala had already benefitted from a few days' of treatment.
Not all rescued koalas have been so lucky. Many are found so badly injured that they need to be euthanised.
Steven Selwood, South Australia Veterinary Emergency Management team leader at the hospital, says around 46,000 koalas were thought to be on the island before this year's bushfires.
It is estimated as few as 9,000 remain, Selwood says, describing the figure as pretty devastating.
The fires here were particularly ferocious and fast-moving so we're seeing a lot less injured wildlife than in other fires, he tells AFP.
A lot of the wildlife was incinerated.
Australian Environment Minister Sussan Ley said the country's koala population had taken an extraordinary hit as a result of bushfires that have raged for months, suggesting they could be listed as endangered for the first time.
Kangaroo Island is the only place in Australia where the population is entirely free of chlamydia -- a sexually transmitted infection also found in humans that is fatal to koalas.
That has made them a key insurance population for the future of the species -- and even more crucial now that large numbers have died in bushfires on the Australian mainland.
Almost half of Kangaroo Island has been razed by fire and an estimated 80 percent of koala habitat wiped out.
This widespread destruction has left rescuers with a tricky proposition -- what to do with the animals once they have recovered.
For now, that issue is on the back burner as teams of vets work overtime to save as many as possible.
He's going to need another week (to recover) and will need to be kept caged after that, Hutchinson tells AFP as he wraps a pink bandage around Number 64's paw.
Because there's no habitat for him to go back to at this time.