WIRES Digital Wildlife Ambassador

In the past few months, Australia has experienced one of the most severe bushfire seasons on record. Sadly, this has resulted in over 800 million animals being affected, including native wildlife.

This figure includes mammals, birds and reptiles but not bats, frogs, insects or other invertebrates. Many animals were already struggling with a lack of water and food due to the drought. With the fires destroying unprecedented amounts of habitat, food shortages have increased and lack of suitable habitat will be a significant long-term challenge for surviving wildlife.

It is likely that these bushfires will have resulted in the extinctions of some endangered species found nowhere else on the planet. It can take many years to confirm that a species no longer exists, meaning that extinctions are not likely to be declared in the near future.

Although I currently reside in Iceland, I am Australian and my home will always be in Australia. Experiencing my country on fire – all of the places that I have loved, cherished, lived in and visited throughout my life – has made me even more concerned about the state of the world and what I can do to help. With a bit of research, I discovered the Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service (WIRES), which is Australia’s largest non-profit wildlife rescue organisation.

While I couldn’t donate much, I sent across a small contribution to support the WIRES Wildlife Emergency Fund, which will help rescue sick, injured and orphaned wildlife affected by these bushfires. I also volunteered to join as a Digital Wildlife Ambassador for WIRES and am excited to announce that I was accepted into the programme today.

It is my goal to help increase community understanding about Australian wildlife, to further conservation efforts and to contribute to the protection of my country’s biodiversity. I look forward to working closely with WIRES in this role to make a long-term positive impact for Australian native wildlife in the many years to come.