The 2019 Australian bushfires initially sparked in September of 2019 and has ravaged the Australian landscapes and foliage for nearly 5 months. The 2019 bushfire has taken the lives of 24 Australians, out of which 10 were firefighters, and the bushfire has taken the lives of over a billion indigenous fauna. Most of the species of fauna affected by the bushfire are at the verge of extinction and if proper wildlife conservation methods are not taken then most of the unique and endangered fauna of Australia are bound to go extinct. This is a crisis for the biodiversity in Australia, which is home to some of Earth’s most distinctive fauna, like marsupials, around 70% of the 344 species of marsupials are found in Australia.

Although dead and scorched koalas and kangaroos have become the symbols when representing the suffering of wildlife due to the bushfires, in reality these animals are not under the threat of extinction as most of their natural habitats have been left untouched by the raging bushfire. The animals that are actually on the verge of extinction due to the fires are lesser known species such as:

• Kangaroo Island Dunnart: before the bushfires struck Australia, it was nearly endangered, they were so rare that researchers who studied them had never gotten an opportunity to personally see one of them, it is now feared that the species of Dunnart may have become extinct during the bushfires as 1/3 of the entire Kangaroo island has burned including the entire area where Kangaroo Island Dunnarts are known to live.
• Glossy Black Cockatoo: Kangaroo Island is home to a unique sub-species of Glossy black cockatoo and there are grave fears as extensive areas of critical habitat have been scorched in the fires that ravaged 1/3 of the island.
• Brush Tailed Rock Wallaby: It is listed as a vulnerable species nationally and is endangered in New South Wales. When fires destroy the native vegetation, they reduce the available habitat and food for the species even if they survive the fires.
• Regent Honeyeater: Conservationists fear that the fires throughout New South Wales have destroyed their habitats in several key parts of the state occupied by the Regent honeyeater. Before the fires, only 400 of these birds were present in the wild.

Thus the 2019 Australian bushfires have severely damaged the Australian flora and fauna to a great extent and preventive measures must be taken in the future to avoid such large scale bushfires therefore reducing the likelihood of the Australian fauna ever facing the brink of extinction.