Port Macquarie Koala volunteers raise concerns about upcoming bushfire season.
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00:00 We found two koalas, one that had extensive burns and unfortunately had to be euthanized
00:05 and also had extensive lung injuries due to smoke inhalation and a second one that luckily
00:11 did not sustain burns but did sustain lung injuries due to smoke inhalation so it is
00:17 actually in care with us at the moment.
00:19 It's very much a matter of close monitoring and see how it goes.
00:23 What they're doing is literally going out and looking for burnt koalas and of course
00:39 any other wildlife too.
00:40 Koalas can be really difficult to find in burnt country, especially if they are burnt
00:44 themselves because if you've got scorching on the trees they're quite brown looking and
00:49 then the koalas are quite brown so they can be really difficult to find unless they're
00:52 on the ground and one of the ones that we got the other day was on the ground and the
00:57 two big fires that people could see from here were Mariah National Park which has got a
01:02 significant population of koalas in it and Mariah State Forest which has also got significant
01:08 koala populations and so just awful.
01:12 And then there's Kalatini State Forest which is south of Kempsey on the other side of the
01:16 highway.
01:17 So yeah the fire season is not looking good, not looking good at all.
01:20 Who knows what's going to happen in the next few weeks.
01:23 We'll be out again.
01:24 We've got about 20 qualified people.
01:26 They all have to have a break of course and most people have jobs.
01:30 So yeah we'll be out again, I'm sure we will.
01:33 [BLANK_AUDIO]