Rescue networks built by fire: Saving animals from Australia’s bushfires

During Australia's 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires, more than 30 million hectares burned and researchers estimate nearly 3 billion vertebrates and up to 240 trillion invertebrates were killed, injured or displaced. With official emergency systems focused solely on people and property, volunteer networks organized largely through social media evacuated horses, built water and feeding stations for wildlife, and rescued animals ranging from platypus to endangered tree frogs.

A University of Sydney-led study of the response, based on 56 interviews, found these informal community networks were highly effective precisely because formal disaster policy contains no provisions for protecting animals at all. Researchers have since developed a proof-of-concept app intended to strengthen, not replace, these community-driven rescue efforts as climate-driven disasters continue.

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