Vegetables Are Being Air-Dropped By Helicopters In Australia To Feed Animals Stranded By Wildfires

By Mayukh Saha / Truth Theory

The current catastrophe in Australia has led to massive rescue operations going on for the last couple of months. The Australian bushfires have made it necessary to drop carrots and other vegetables for the wildlife. Choppers have started flying over New South Wales, one of the states that have been hard-hit by the Australian bushfires. The choppers carried sweet potatoes and carrots for wallabies that had been stranded by the wildfires.

Read: Man Nursed An Abandoned Dog Back To Health After It Was Barely Hanging On

Carrots

Image: Matt Kean/Twitter

The operation has been named ‘Operation Rock Wallaby’ by the forest officials at NSW. The operation is aimed at saving the ‘at risk’ species: brush-tailed rock wallabies. The last week has seen almost 2200 kg of vegetables being dropped in various locations throughout the state to help the marsupials. Matt Kean, the Minister of Environment, NSW mentioned that wallabies have escaped the fire. But now that they’re now out of their habitat, food is scarce for them.

Plane dropping vegetables

Image: NSW Office of Environment & Heritage

Ecologists of the University of Sydney believe that close to one billion animals died due to the bushfires. The Australian bushfires have spread to several areas in Australia, where the endemic animals have been unable to take support or find any safe space elsewhere.

Wallaby eating carrot

Image: NSW Office of Environment & Heritage

Around 80% of the species that have become the victims of the bushfires are endemic to Australia. That means they won’t be found elsewhere. Their loss signals a widespread loss of ecological diversity throughout the world.

Credit: The Sun

Many of the species have lost a major size of their population. And these include kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, and other such animals. The WWF in Australia has mentioned that until the fire subsides, one cannot fully comprehend the extent to which the forests have been destroyed. Some ecologists are of the idea that the forests might take years, even decades to get replenished.

Read: Conservationist Plants Super Grove Of Ancient Redwood Trees Cloned From Ancient Stumps

The planes used to deliver the vegetables to the wallabies have been leased on the money that common citizens donated. ‘Vets for Compassion’ is the organization that took the donations.

Lyn White from Animals Australia said that they are ensuring that no living animal dies of hunger anymore.

Featured image: NSW Office of Environment & Heritage

IMAGE FEATURED: AnimalsAustralia

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