An artist has created an incredible sand mural of a koala on a beach in Geelong, Victoria, in honor of millions of animals who died in Australia’s bushfire crisis.
Artist Breathe a Blue Ocean shared a picture of the artwork on Instagram which shows a little koala clinging to a burning tree. They explained that they made it to raise awareness of the millions of animals that perished due to the deadly bushfires in Australia.
“We were all smelling the smoke of the fire today and not seeing the sun at time,” the caption read.
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Australia experts believe about one billion animals have died, leading many species into the brink of extinction like the koalas, kangaroos and even livestock animals.
“Unfortunately for koalas their habitat is just being destroyed,” said Australian Reptile Park curator Hayley Shute. “And so the population in Australia isn’t great. That’s just due to the habitat destruction, so we just need to make sure that we’re not cutting down their trees and we’re planting new ones.”
WWF Australia CEO Dermot O’Gorman said the “mega fires” are not normal.
“Climate change does not cause bushfires, but it does make them much worse,” he added. “This heartbreaking loss includes thousands of precious koalas on the mid-north coast of NSW, along with other iconic species such as kangaroos, wallabies, gliders, potoroos, cockatoos and honeyeaters.”
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– Teenagers drive around town to rescue koalas from Australia fires
– Australian koalas now ‘functionally extinct’ with only 80,000 left
– Australia’s insurance koala population halved by bushfires
