All language subtitles for After the Wildfires (2020).en

Australia has always
been a land of extremes.

Its unique wildlife has adapted

to the vagaries
of severe weather.

For millennia, fire is a force
that has shaped

the nature of Australia.

But in 2019
came the Black Summer.

The most savage fire season
in recorded history

signified a new phase
in the climate crisis.

To see these places
one after each other,

be destroyed, it's devastating.

What has been lost?

What is left now?

Have we lost
whole animal cultures?

It's taken
a lot from Australia.

I think that's why we're seeing

this huge reaction
of love for the wildlife here.

People want to help,
people want to care.

We've just gotta help
them come back

and we've got to make
things better

for when they do come back.

Over the course of a year,

we chart the recovery...
After The Wildfires.

For three years,
record-breaking droughts

have had Australia
in their grip.

Rivers have disappeared,
lakes vaporised...

and forests turned tinder dry.

2019 is recorded as the hottest

and driest year
in the history books.

Extreme fire danger is declared

two months earlier
than a typical year.

Now there is a heightened risk

of a fire-generated
thunderstorm.

In August, dry
lightning sparks the first fire.

Ancient forests rich with
biodiversity, ignites.

These are the forest bastions

from which all of Australia's
unique marsupials evolved...

..now, their world is on fire.

Radio 88-1 431,

request your assistance, over.

A lightning strike sparked

one of the biggest bushfires
the world has ever seen.

A state
of emergency has been declared,

crews calling the conditions
as bad as it gets.

In places,
the fire's become so violent

they create their own weather.

The scale
of this bushfire emergency

is hard to get your head around.

The largest fire front
in the country's history.

From Queensland...

into Western Australia...

Victoria, to New South Wales...

..it feels like the
whole continent is on fire.

Off the coast
of South Australia,

a blaze consumes
half of Kangaroo Island,

home to 50,000 koalas.

For the slow-moving
tree dweller, there's no escape.

At the western tip
of the island,

Shona and Rick Fisher
live on a small acreage.

With fires still burning,
they check on their horses.

But they soon discover

it's the wildlife
that needs their help.

Looking, looking, looking.

Over here, there might
be some in the corner.

It's difficult to gauge

the full impact
on the koala population,

but here they fear
it could be catastrophic.

There doesn't seem
to be anyone else

searching out this end.

We've become
the koala people I suppose.

Rick and Shona
assess if koalas can stay

or if they need to be rescued.

You're alright there, mate.

Might need some water.

Feet are burnt.

Can't put any weight
on the back legs.

Oh, poor Mama, eh?

Poor Mama.

We only wanna take
the ones that can't climb,

that need medical treatment.

Yes.

Sometimes they're asking
for help.

They almost walk up to you.

But that's why
we're out here doing it.

We're trying to save
some of them.

How are you, eh?

Hey, little fella.

Well, this little boy's good,
he can climb.

For many it's too late.

Mum...

he's dead.

- He's dead?
- Mm.

Hey, sweetheart, hm?

Oh, this is one of the saddest
things I've seen.

For her to be sitting here with
her dead baby, that's just...

You know, it's horrible,
so... but um...

It's heartbreaking.

The mother's
best chance of survival

now rests in the hands
of Shona and Rick.

But even now, she's not ready
to leave her baby behind.

She's obviously traumatised,
she's lost her baby.

Over the days
following the fire,

Rick and Shona pick up over
120 koalas to take into care.

OK, you done there?
Yep.

OK, no sweat, that's good.

As fires still burn,
Shona and Rick head

to a makeshift koala hospital
on the island.

Hey, pretty girl.

..and both hind paws.

Vets, volunteers
and Defence Force soldiers

are on hand to treat
the injured animals.

A number,
and gonna put some cream on.

Under anaesthetic,
the mother is assessed

and treated for burns.

I think that's the one
that had the baby.

- Had a baby?
- Oh, the baby died.

She was sitting
next to it on the ground.

After the fires,
more than 600 koalas are given

critical care
in this emergency centre.

Well, today we're done,
we've handed them in

and kept an eye on them
and found out how they're going.

The mother koala that we found
with the dead baby,

they're quite confident
that she's gonna be fine.

She's got burns
on all four feet,

but they're quite confident
that she'll be OK.

At least 40,000
koalas died in the bushfire

that ravaged the island.

Those that survived, lost
80 percent of their habitat.

Few will ever return home.

It's a story repeated
across the continent.

Before the fires,
the majestic forests

of the New South Wales coast
once stood as cathedrals,

reaching all the way to the sea.

Four weeks after the fires,
the forests have become

a desolate place...

unrecognisable.

Across the Black Summer,
50 million hectares

have been reduced to ash
in the space of a few months.

11,000 individual fires burnt
through New South Wales alone.

The scale of the crisis
is hard to fathom.

An area larger than England
has been razed.

Survivors emerge
into a landscape

stripped of food,
water and shelter.

In the Southern Highlands,
American naturalist,

John Creighton,
searches for wombats

he's monitored
for the last two years.

The first morning of the fire
this place was still smoking.

The ground was ash.

Not a single leaf.

Trees were still smouldering.

There was no life,
not a single bird.

It was a shocking,
shocking sight.

And my hope is, those wombats
that have found safety

in that area are still there
and have survived this fire.

Instead, he finds a graveyard.

This is definitely wombat bones.

That's a hip bone.

Alright, so this wombat
would have been caught

outside of its burrow

and I would say
intense heat, died instantly.

And the temperatures that,
to bring a bone to this nature

would've been
crematorium temperatures.

Shocking,
it's really just shocking

for this poor little guy.

Less optimistic,
John resumes his search.

He knows many of the burrows
in this area.

Finally, hope.

The noise I'm making
is a greeting sound

for the wombats,

and if she trusts me,
she'll come out.

Some of those burrows,
they're 4, 10, 15, 20m long.

So, just by staying
in their burrows,

they would have made it through.

Some of the other animals
would've run into those burrows.

I think the echidna
and the goanna.

I don't think the wombat
was actually shepherding them

and saying,
"Come on in, please,"

but the animals know
where to go to get safe.

You know, the ones that did come
out of their burrows

and survive,
they were left with a world

with no food, no water.

It wouldn't have made
much sense to them,

and they would've
eventually just walked, looking,

trying to find new food.

The other ones that didn't,
or couldn't,

would have died
of thirst or starvation.

It's been a good six weeks
since the fire's passed,

and still no real sign
of edible, sustainable growth.

Things are growing back,

and there's shoots on trees
and things coming up,

but this is not the stuff
the wombat would eat.

At dusk, John lays out food

for the forest survivors.

The scent carries through
the burnt bush as an invitation.

Nature will come back.

It's happening already,
but it's going to take time.

In the Hunter Valley region,

the extreme summer
is taking its toll.

Even where fire didn't reach,
native animals are struggling.

With its webbed feet,

the platypus is not suited
for travel over land.

But drought is forcing
it to search

for the last of the water.

Further upstream,
staff from a nearby

animal sanctuary are scouring
the remaining puddles.

Rare Manning River turtles
are found hunkered down

in the mud, trying to keep
cool as the river dries.

For many, it's too late.

I've just walked
the entire riverbed and found

countless turtles that are dead,
and two dead platypus.

So, I think it hurts
just a little bit more

because we've just missed
them by this much.

They've only just died.

Wildlife carer,
Hayley Shute continues searching

for survivors,
in dire conditions.

- I've never seen
a drought like this before.

I've never seen a river system
in this kind of condition.

I can't put words to describe
how devastating it is,

and how much
everything needs water.

So, to see this,
it's actually heartbreaking.

Nine platypus
are found still alive.

The team relocates
the healthy ones

into deeper pools
and take five of the most

fragile into care.

Nearby, at the Wandandian
Kangaroo and Wallaby Sanctuary,

the fires came right
to the fence-line.

Well, I was thinking
that, then I was like...

Putting animals
before their own safety,

staff and volunteers
returned to receive

an influx of injured roos.

That's for Tikki.
Flame's being fed

- She's being fed now?
- Yeah, Ash is being fed.

The injured roos
are given fire-related names,

like Ash, Smoky and Sparkles.

Burnt feet
are the most common injury,

but even stress can be a killer.

Despite constant care,
few adults survive fire trauma.

Orphan joeys
are surprisingly more resilient.

There you go, sweetheart.

This is Sandy,
who was orphaned when her Mum

needed to be euthanised
because she was badly injured.

She got called Sandy
'cause Mum's pouch

had a lot of sand in it.

She was covered in sand
when she came out.

Because she's so perfect,

she's been
a little bit of respite

amongst all the others
that are so badly injured.

She's got the most perfect feet,
everyone loves her.

Come on, come and get your milk.

Come on.

Come on, come and get your milk.

For the young
orphans, human surrogates

and formula milk
offer them a fighting chance.

It's difficult for kangaroos
to bounce back from burns.

Infection moves
quickly into bones.

That's closed up,
but given that that's one of her

major weight-bearing
points there,

we'll probably keep bandaging
that for a little bit longer.

Keeping this roo
on her feet is doubly important.

- This one should still have
a little joey.

Only a jellybean.

As months pass,
attention shifts

from caring for the injured
to taking stock of the loss.

The inferno that tore
through the South Endeavour

Conservation Reserve
at Bezzant's Lease

burned with such intensity,

it's unclear
if anything survived.

Finding hidden signs of life
takes detective work...

and camera traps
are a perfect tool.

My standardised 50 is just here.

Top of the camera at 50...

Ecologists, Eradani and Sabrina,

from Australian
Wildlife Conservancy,

set up cameras with the hope
of recording nocturnal species.

- So, we use a general bait

which is contained
in a canister.

It's peanut butter,
rolled oats, sardines.

It's looking good.

So, it's attractive
to both small mammals

- and carnivorous marsupials.
- Great.

Even Australians
don't often get a chance to see

the amazing diversity
of fauna in Australia.

So, using camera traps
is a way that we can see

what's out there
and find out what they do

in their night time lives.

The high-altitude forests

of the New England Tablelands

are renowned
for their biodiversity.

But the inhabitants
are secretive,

even in the best of times.

Naturalists,
Jasmine and Ritchie,

are searching
the lower swamplands.

This requires
laying pitfall traps.

I think there's a chance
we'll find something.

Not optimistic, but hopeful.

But traps
left out overnight

are not revealing any reptiles,
or small mammals, either.

- 0 out of 25, not great.
- Yeah.

But Jasmine and Ritchie

have one more trick
in their tool kit.

- So, I reckon between
these two trees.

- Yep.
- It'll be blocking the fly way.

Yep.

- Have you got yours lined up?
- Yep.

This is a harp trap.

So, it is how we trap
microbat species.

- Just like this?
- Yep.

Mouse-sized microbats
make up one-fifth

of all Australian mammals.

But whether they've survived
the blaze is still unknown.

It will take nightfall
to find out.

I'll just bring this side.

Oh, my god.

- Oh, yes!
- We've got a bat!

- A little bat, good job.
- Excellent.

Oh, aren't you lovely?

- Yeah, it's really cute.

Bats go into torpor
during the day,

which is a little
mini hibernation

that they do to reserve energy.

And they have actually found
that bats will wake up

from torpor
when they smell smoke.

If the fire came close to him
then he would've fled.

Yeah, right.

- Ooh, looks like
he's had an injury.

- So, this is an injury is it,
this difference in colour?

- Yep, so that's all scar tissue
that's healing now.

- Yeah, so I think it has been
injured in the fires.

So, him moving his lips there,
he's echo-locating.

So, he's trying to figure out
what's going on around him.

So, he's getting
ready to fly off.

Yeah, it's probably
time to let him go.

- Come on, buddy, time to go.

Oh...that was quick.

It's a good sign
to find microbats.

It's an indicator the insect
biomass is recovering, too.

After several weeks
Eridani and Sabrina return.

Today we've come back
to collect those traps

and just see what's on them.

Alright, let's have a look,

see what we've got in
the last three weeks.

- That's a swampy.
- Yep.

Echidna!

- Quoll!
- Hey!

That's great.

- Spotted tail quoll.
- Oh!

- Oh, he wants in.
- Oh.

He really wants in to the bait.

- Give me the bait!

Yeah, it is really exciting
to see spotted tailed quolls.

They're a listed
threatened species.

Whose ear is that?

- Who's that?
- Oh, I don't know.

- Who are you?
- What is that?

- Oh, it's a wombat!
- It's a wombat!

- Oh, my goodness!
- He takes up the whole...

He's enormous!

I mean, that's a really great
suite of animals.

It's really encouraging
and heartening

to see these animals
on camera traps,

but they are still
the larger species

that have the ability
to find refuge.

The critical part
is continuing surveying

to find out if smaller mammals
and reptiles are still here.

But the camera trap

has also captured
a worrying sign.

- Oh!
- Oh, feral cat,

that's not cool.

For animals that have survived,

feral cats are probably
one of the biggest problems.

It's known that,
particularly feral cats,

will use fire scars to hunt

because their prey items
are exposed.

- Another one!
- Oh, a different one.

So, there's at least two there.

- And another one.
- Yeah.

So, there's quite a few
out there.

Cats have spread
to 99 percent of Australia,

and kill 1.5 billion
native animals every year.

Australia's wild creatures
are especially vulnerable

in the barren aftermath,

where there are few
places to hide.

In the fire ravaged
Barrington Range,

conservationist, Tim Faulkner,
helps one of the last

populations of brush-tailed
rock wallabies.

For the past six months,
we've been providing food,

or food drops to about four
known little wallaby hotspots.

Without a doubt, if we hadn't
have brought food here,

there would've been
at least 10 wallabies

that live on this outcrop
that would've perished.

Of the 15 species
of rock wallaby in Australia,

most have disappeared
from their original range...

due to feral predators
and land clearing.

Rock outcrops,
like tiny islands,

are where the brush-tailed
rock wallaby hangs on.

But the population is teetering.

With 80 percent of rock wallaby
habitat being burnt,

it means areas
like this are now critical.

You know, when you've got
an enclave like this,

that's fragmented and it's here,

it becomes
all the more precious.

This forest here as we stand,
it's been burnt,

it's regrowing
and that looks pretty.

It's a bit of green.

But it is an ecological
ghost town,

and it was before the fires.

Its entire mammal suite
has disappeared,

other than kangaroos, wombats
and species that are too big

for the feral fox
or feral cat to eat.

It's lost all of its natives.

Australia has the worst mammal
extinction rate on earth.

And over 90 percent
of all our extinctions

are related to the introduced
feral fox and feral cat.

Let's step back 200 years
to this forest right here.

Just within this small area,

let's say the size
of half a football field,

we would've had
one bandicoot, one bettong,

one potoroo,
one small wallaby.

We would've had a predator,
like a quoll.

An overlapping
Tassie devil 3,000 years ago.

All gone.

Let's drop down another scale.

Native rodents, they're gone.

With that have gone
the predators.

There's no tiger snakes.

There's no pythons.

There's no lace monitors.

The whole thing
is just in collapse

and I go along here
and flip a hundred rocks

and I won't find
one small skink,

and there used to be thousands.

So, in an area just the size
of half a football field,

the overall biomass
of animals that has gone

is just unbelievable,
and again, look here now.

It's an empty forest.

With their absence,
our whole forest floor

builds up in debris,
because there's nothing turning

it over and turning
it into soil.

We've lost that.

So, when a fire starts, it's got
so much fuel on the ground.

That fuel burns,
and the hotter it burns

the higher the fire gets,
and then we have canopy fires.

Bringing those marsupials back
could play a critical role

in the reduction
of fire fuel load.

But bringing them back
also has its challenges

because they've gone
for a reason

and that's because
of the introduced feral fox

and the feral cat.

Tim has made
it his life's work

to re-establish populations

of Australia's rare
and threatened mammals.

At a secure facility,
atop the Barrington Range

an ark of Australian animals
is being bred

as insurance populations.

After the fires, the work here
is more urgent than ever before.

- Around about there for now.

Hey, Fat Lady.

Amongst the animals
being bred for release

are Tasmanian devils,

the largest surviving
marsupial carnivore.

- There you go.

Let's have a look.

That's it, big girl.

Good girl.

- You got some?
- Look at that.

A peek inside the pouch

- shows tiny joeys developing.
- ..one, two, three.

- Good girl.
- Oh, look at 'em.

And a little boy and last one
is another little boy.

Two boys and a girl.

Good effort, Mum.

That's awesome.

What we'll do is we'll tuck
her joeys back in

and then we'll pop
her back in her nest box.

- I know, I know.

Righto.

The ark has bred
over 450 devils,

with 50 set free in Tasmania.

Hundreds of other animals
have been raised

for release in national parks.

But restocking wild populations

depends on creatures
having wild places to live.

Australia has been facing
the loss of its natural places

and natural things
for a very long time.

The fires should act
as a big wake up call,

and not
just for eastern Australia.

I mean, the catastrophic
loss of biodiversity

throughout Australia
is very well documented.

If fires have brought
that to light,

then let that be the good.

In the forests
of Queensland's Darling Downs,

life awakens.

Epicormic shoots are sprouting
from tree trunks.

Like lime green feather boas,

they adorn the blackened
bodies of the gums.

Storms bring the hope
of landscape recovery.

Quenching rains
soften the baked soil...

and add the lifegiving
ingredient to buried seeds.

It's been almost eight months
since the Gospers Mountain blaze

turned the famous
Blue Mountains black.

80 percent
of this World Heritage area

was razed by the fires.

Today is the first time
ornithologists,

Anastasia and Vicky
have returned

to their study site
in the Jamison Valley.

We're hoping
that the birds have survived

and we're hoping to hear
a dawn chorus,

'cause it's the middle
of winter,

it's their breeding season
and they should be starting

to sing right about now.

I think he's over there.

- You see it?
- Oh yeah.

Yeah, I do.

- It's just amazing
that they're here.

Finding survivors
is encouraging...

Oh, it's good to see him.

..but seeing the males perform
courtship displays

is the best sign of recovery.

Yeah, so the male
superb lyrebird,

he's most famous
for his vocal mimicry.

They can mimic a huge range
of sounds in the environment.

Mainly other species of bird.

They can mimic
a camera shutter, chainsaws,

all sorts of bizarre things.

Last year, we had this great
team of excellent biologists,

finding lyrebirds
throughout their entire range

of New South Wales, Victoria,
ACT, Southern Queensland.

And then at least half of those
sites have now gone.

We've looked at the maps, um...

It's incredible.

It's... it's really,
really upsetting.

So, we feel that some
of the birds that we've recorded

will have perished in the fires,

and perhaps
some of the dialects,

some of these
different animal cultures

may have become extinct
just in, you know,

a few months during these fires.

To see these places,
one after each other,

be destroyed, it's devastating.

What has been lost,
what is left now?

Have we lost
whole animal cultures?

I will say we like heard
more singing this morning

than I thought we would,

given what I saw
on the fire maps

of how badly
this area's been affected.

And so the fact that these males
have survived, it's a good sign

that these females
have survived as well.

Each breeding season,
Vicky checks the nests

of the females
in her study sites.

So, along here we have Gertrude.

Her neighbour is Xena,
and then the final bird

on the end that we were working
with was Queen Victoria.

And we were
just in the territory of Diana.

Lyrebirds have shown resilience
in the moment of fire.

So, we know that they will go
down wombat holes.

We know that they will hide
in creek lines.

They're not very good flyers,
so when faced with fire,

it's not like they can fly
away like another bird.

They've, kind of,
just got to hunker down.

Foremost on Vicky's mind

is her favourite bird, Gertrude.

She has checked her nest
for the last four years.

So, that's her nest over there.

And I can't see her,

but there's a feather
in the nest.

And so, to me that says
it's an active nest.

And so, that's a really,
really good sign.

But I'm going to have to get
closer...to see if she's in it.

Hi, long time no see,
sweetheart.

Hello.

And so she's trying to distract
me from her location.

So, I'm just going to check
if there's an egg in here.

Very gently.

And yep, we have an egg.

So, this cargo is very,
very precious,

remembering that they only have
one per year.

Pop it back to safety.

I'm just so pleased.

I assumed
that all these birds were gone,

and I grieved for them
because I didn't think

that they would survive.

Today has been wonderful
to give me a bit of hope.

She's looking at me.

Like small mammals

who reduce fuel loads
by tilling the soil,

lyrebirds also play a vital role
as landscape engineers.

Each bird moves 150 tonnes
of soil every year,

more than any other
animal on earth.

- Lyrebirds actually help
decrease the chance

of really intense fires,
because they're helping

with this decomposition
of leaves and they're preventing

that kind of build up that can
lead to really intense fire.

The forest relies
on lyrebirds,

just as they rely on the forest.

It's estimated three billion
native vertebrates perished

in Australia's
Black Summer fires.

The equivalent
of almost half the human

population of the planet.

No other event
anywhere in the world,

in living memory, has killed
or displaced as many animals.

It's an unfathomable loss
of rare and precious wildlife.

Australia's Black Summer
fires rank as the worst

wildlife disaster
in modern history.

But Australia
is just the leading edge

of a new global reality.

Humans are pushing the planet
to a new epoch of fire,

it's been dubbed The Pyrocene.

Climate modelling
predicts longer,

more dangerous fire seasons
for both the southern

and northern hemispheres.

As global temperatures reach
cataclysmic new highs,

a hotter, more-fiery planet
means intervention

will be increasingly necessary
for animals to survive

in a world where the rules
have changed.

In the ashes
of Namadgi National Park,

in the Australian
Capital Territory,

Professor David Lindemeyer

surveys the obliterated
landscape.

As a world-renowned
fire ecologist,

David has been researching

how the fire seasons
are changing.

So, what we're seeing
is unprecedented fire.

Places that are burning
that should never burn,

such as sub-tropical
rainforests,

and places
that are burning repeatedly.

No ecosystems are geared
to deal with very frequent,

very high-intensity
and high severity fires.

And the danger is that that will
lead to the collapse

of some ecosystems,
and the extinction

of some of the species
that are associated

with those environments.

We simply have to tackle
issues with climate change.

Climate and weather

are the fundamental drivers
of fire.

We have to take part
in this global discussion

about what we are going
to do to control

carbon emissions,
what we are going to do

to store more carbon
in the environment,

and what we are going to do
to deal with the kinds

of catastrophic events
that we've seen.

Climate change is not something
far off in la-la land.

It's here and now.

It's a clear and present danger.

Flame robin, right here.

See the male?

There he is.

It's one of the first birds
that we start to pick up

in the environment
when it's been burnt like this.

He's cross with me
because I'm wearing red.

There would have been
enormous mortality

of animals in this area.

You know, many populations
would have been knocked back

90, 95 percent, maybe even more.

But those residual animals
that have survived and can make

a living directly after the fire
will be important for recovering

populations in these
kinds of areas.

The key thing is that
these areas don't burn again

in the next few years.

What we experienced in 2019-20
was a catastrophe in Australia.

But the reality is that many,
many other parts of the world

are going to experience
these kinds of problems.

We have to work harder
to come up

with good solutions
in a proactive way.

It's the only way forward.

The platypus rescued
early in the summer

is now ready to head home.

Today is such a big day
for Buddy.

He has been putting
weight and condition on

for the last six months
and he is very excited,

by the looks of it,
to go out into the wild.

A wet winter
has brought rivers back to life.

I'll miss him a lot.

You ready to go?

But it's really, really exciting
to be able to let him go.

Feels amazing.

I got a little bit teary there.

He's actually just checking out

where he might make
his new home.

There's lots of food around.

Hopefully he'll find
a female and start

to repopulate this area.

So, fingers crossed,

we have little Buddies
swimming around soon.

Almost one year after the fires,

the Blue Mountains
are greening again.

With high hopes, Vicky returns
to Gertrude's nest site.

- And so we've come back today
to see if that egg

has turned into a chick,
hopefully.

Vicky finds the nest
and Gertrude, too.

- So, this is a really
good sign.

They put their wing up.

It's, kind of,
a defensive behaviour,

and I would expect
her to only be doing

that if either
she still had an egg,

or there was a chick
in the nest now.

The stakes are high.

Last year we had a predation
rate of about 90 percent,

so most nests didn't survive.

And so it's always
a bit nerve-wracking

when you go back
to a nest to see

if there is a chick or not,

because there may have been,
or you may have missed it,

and not been there in time.

Hopefully there's one in there.

Yes, there is a chick.

There we are!

Look, hello!

You notice
it's listening to Mum.

Considering what happened
with the fires...

I'm just so stoked
to see this little one.

- Beautiful.

I'm always happy
to see a lyrebird baby,

but this baby is very special.

There we go.

I didn't even think
Gertrude would have survived,

and the fact that she's
not only survived,

but she has a beautiful,
healthy chick,

I'm just over the moon.

For Australia's
precious wildlife to recover,

it will take many years
and much human help.

Communities working
to regenerate landscapes

and create safe,
feral-proof havens

for wildlife
will be essential.

As will be the necessity
to preserve

fragile habitats
and threatened species.

And captive breeding
to restock wild populations

will also reduce the risk
of extinction

in case of future fires.

Yeah, I think
there's a whole range of things

that need to be addressed.

Where are our small mammals?

Who's looking after the forests
in a natural way?

Are we correctly managing
fire within our parks?

And then we've got the
super-beast of climate change.

Which areas can we tackle
and which have the real

tangible impact
before it's too late?

The fires have brought
a real awareness to Australia

and the rest of the world
of how fragile we really are.

It's only through
work like this

and everybody doing something,

moving it forward,
that we will see the change.

We will see healing.