Nature

A wildfire catastrophe engulfs Australia

on a scale never before seen.

Get out of there, mate!

Caught in its path, vulnerable native wildlife.

Ordinary people become bushfire heroes,

in a desperate bid to save lives.

459...

And extraordinary relationships are forged...

Are you ready to meet Wanda?

as human and animal fates collide.

But a crisis with human origins

compels us to find innovative solutions.

You ready?

Go find.

He's indicated. - There.

What lessons can we learn

from Australia's Black Summer,

and how can we safeguard our precious wildlife

in an even hotter future?

Something strange has been happening on the fringes

of the Australian bush.

Koalas get most of their moisture from eucalypt leaves.

They're typically shy and avoid humans.

So when people start filming them coming down

from their trees...

...and seeking out humans,

desperately thirsty for water...

Oh, sweetheart, you're so thirsty.

This is not something you normally see.

it's a clear sign

something is drastically wrong.

On the back of successive dry years,

2019 is the driest on record.

And the season ahead is set to be one of the hottest.

It will be remembered as the Black Summer.

It starts on the east coast in early spring.

By the time summer arrives, more than 100 separate fires

are tearing across the landscape...

The scale of this bushfire emergency

is hard to get your head around.

some of them joining up to become megafires,

so large they create their own weather

and become virtually unstoppable.

Sydney is tonight surrounded by a ring of fires.

and hell came to Bilpin.

Utter devastation.

These megafires advance faster

and burn with a greater ferocity than the fires of the past.

Firefighters work desperately to save homes and human lives.

But forests, and the life within them,

are consumed and incinerated.

It's a fire season unlike any in modern history.

On a stretch of coastline busy with holiday makers,

the Currowan fire is sparked by a single lightning strike,

but it grows into a monster spanning more than 60 miles.

95, we are retreating...

Its speed is so extreme, firefighters are caught unaware.

Come on, it's gone further up there.

In its midst, a kangaroo sanctuary

has miraculously survived.

It's alright. It's okay.

A mobile vet care unit has arrived to treat casualties

from the surrounding forest.

I've got a patient for you, Cath.

Everything from an abandoned baby swamp wallaby

to one of Australia's most feared reptiles,

a deadly tiger snake.

Come on. Come on.

A 10-month-old joey, who's been named Sage,

needs her bandages changed daily

while her badly burnt feet recover.

- Sorry. - That nail down there.

He's already lost that nail.

Yeah it came off.

If they lose the nails on those...

their big middle toes... - This one.

then they can't really hop properly.

They can't really do what they need to do.

The next arrival to the clinic

is a juvenile rainbow lorikeet.

So I'm assuming that he's been in a hollow.

Mum and Dad haven't come back.

And he's at some point decided to abandon the nest.

They're known for their boisterous personalities,

but this one seems uncharacteristically subdued.

I don't know if you can say a bird's traumatized,

but I haven't seen a bird come in like this before.

Hello, little one. Hi.

My biggest question is the smoke

and how we know what internal damage has been done?

Yeah.

And he doesn't smell sour or anything.

The bird seems physically healthy,

but at this age, still needs care and company.

I definitely would try and buddy him up

as soon as, you know,

you can find one of similar... Similar age.

Yeah, yep. I'll put the call out.

We'll get him a friend.

Yeah. There you go little one.

Hey.

Outside, there's a new patient...

Hello! Oh, how gorgeous.

So we've got...

a baby bare-nosed wombat.

How long have you had this one?

- I just picked it up. - Just picked it up?

Just half an hour ago.

I think she's been with her deceased mother,

because she smells really bad.

She's been named Wanda,

after being found wandering along a road

all by herself.

She's still very much like

she should be with her mum, right,

for a really long time still to come, yeah.

Yes. Yeah.

Yeah, so I imagine that her mother

has been burned in the fires.

She's just gone back to the burrow

and she's probably succumbed to her injuries.

At around 12 months of age,

Wanda would normally still be suckling

and would stay at her mother's side for another year.

This is just an assessment

'cause it was picked up on the road as an orphan.

And so does it need treatment?

She's pretty yucky around the nose.

Wanda has burns to her airways

which will need urgent treatment.

And without her mother and the safety of their burrow,

she'll need ongoing care.

Oh, she's so cute.

Just 85 miles furthersouth, a double tragedy unfolds.

The fires have swept through a koala sanctuary

painstakingly established over decades.

Yeah, I think it's going to be thin

like all of the other ones.

And if you got the towel

we could drop the towel over its head.

Land clearing has threatened the survival

of the iconic species.

But this refuge was home to one of the few populations

that had been increasing in numbers.

The founder of the sanctuary, James Fitzgerald,

is now searching for the survivors.

They were lucky to survive the fire,

but luck's running out.

Koalas like this one have survived

the sudden inferno.

But if they're not already suffering

life-threatening burns,

with the few remaining pockets of green leaves now dying,

they'll soon face starvation.

I mean, they all need a full vet check,

and some of them we haven't been able to save.

This one, it does feel very thin but we'll get it to the vet

and get it properly assessed.

Keep it quiet.

Good.

Very good.

But koalas haven't been the only victims here.

I'm also a volunteer Rural Fire Service.

And I was out fighting that fire from the 30th,

and just 'cause of the wind, I was worried.

My Group Captain was coming in a fire truck.

So yeah, and you could see he had tears in his eyes

and other... the other guys did.

Just over the hill there, the three American pilots died.

A scorch mark, fragmented pieces of wreckage

leading into the bush...

All that is left of the C-130 tanker.

Ian McBeth, Rick DeMorgan, and Paul Hudson

had come from the US to support Australian firefighters.

They'd been battling to save the koala sanctuary,

dumping fire-retardant at low altitude

in gusty winds.

You know, we really appreciate

what they did here, helping.

To have... to have them die here is just...

I...

you know, it's terrible.

For James, their sacrifice has compounded

the moral urgency of saving the koalas.

I mean, there's just nothing you can really do

for the families, but I guess what we're trying to just do

is say we're never going to forget them.

But smoke and flames aren't the only killers

this Black Summer.

On the continent's southern edge,

in the city of Adelaide,

a colony of grey headed flying foxes are becoming restless.

Wildlife veterinary scientist Wayne Boardman is increasingly

concerned by the prolonged high temperatures.

I've become particularly fond of the species,

having researched them for several years.

They suffer from what we call heat stress events.

When the temperature starts to get to around

about 38 degrees centigrade, they start to flap their wings

to try and get a bit of evaporative cooling.