Suffered its most intense Bushfire Season on record. 18 months on, Nick Lazaredes travels to some of the areas hardest hit. It just exploded. Like, a whole mountainjust exploded in five seconds. Ive never seen anything like it. Australians know it as black summer. The months in late 2019 and early 2020 when the Country Saw its most intense Bushfire Season on record. Up to Three Billion animals were killed or displaced, and huge swathes of their habitat were burnt. Im Nick Lazaredes, and 18 months on, ive been travelling across australia to discover how its wildlife is faring now. Theres a complete removal of resources that wildlife needs. Whether they eat leaves, flowers, pollen, fungi all those resources, the foodstuff of the wildlife, is gone. But From The Ashes of catastrophe, there are also signs of hope and new beginnings for some of australias most iconic animals. Yes, there were some casualties, but there was no species lost, and that is important. And people have to realise it takes time for a natural habitat to re establish for the wildlife to come back to it. But it will happen. In far northern new south wales, not far from where australias worst Bushfire Season began in 2019, one of the countrys best known species is struggling under the strain. So, yeah, imjust looking because he had an internal bleed, and he had a blood transfusion, im looking just forfluid in the abdomen, just to make sure that that bleeding has stopped. Here, and in other parts of the country ravaged by the fires, slow moving koalas stood little chance. Yeah, koalas are in a tree, so they dont run away from fires, and the fires just sweep through. And if its a really slow burning, intense fire, theyjust get burnt, and then they fall to the ground, dead. With huge tracts of their native habitat destroyed, Urban Development and rampant Land Clearing has put the species on a fast track to extinction. You can see his broken nose there. And hes still a bit wonky on one side. In new south wales, the push to protect koalas has been mired in bitter political debate. And weak national environmental laws appear to be hastening their demise. So it it is a concern with politics and the Koala Recovery plans and things that the governments trying to put in place. It makes us concerned that theyre not doing enough to protect these animals, because we do know that theyre very vulnerable at this Stage Due to habitat loss. This is triumph. Hey, baby. Hello, darlings. Aw. You want cuddles . At the lismore koala hospital, one of a handful dedicated solely to koalas, the list of long term residents is expanding. But this koala, named triumph, is already famous. So do you have a special bond with this koala . 0h, absolutely. Ive had him since he was a baby. With part of leg missing, triumph was recently fitted with a Prosthetic Limb a world first. Hey, buddy there you go. Its a welcome milestone in koala care. But for the front line teams caring for australias iconic wildlife, the trauma of black summer looms large. Were already full with koalas that were suffering. We had record numbers. It was i think we had it once a 3k koalas, which is yeah, we we were struggling. So we were already building up runs. And then when the fires hit, unfortunately we had to wait until it was clear for us to go out, but most of them perished. It did bring a lot of awareness around. If only covid didnt come out shortly afterward, we could still be educating people. But yeah, absolutely, there was keen interest all over the world. So in one way that was good, but it was devastating to our wildlife. With the recovery of the koala and other native species hampered by weak laws and toxic politics, the most substantive response is coming from the grassroots. So was your indigenous protected area affected by the fire . Yes. Yeah, yeah. 80 . And a lot of Animal Species have moved away, too. We know that over 80 in some areas of the Koala Habitat has been destroyed and affected by the fires, with over 61,000 koalas estimated to have perished in the fires. So we do know that all the way up the east coast of australia, there were fires affecting Koala Habitat, including in this area here. On this farm in tintenbar, in northern nsw, the World Wildlife Fund is helping with a Community Effort to plant Koala Food trees on a massive scale. Evenjust today, were planting 9,000 Koala Food and habitat trees and the cattle have been removed off this property and the Land Holders really want to see this part of the property restored for the koalas. With more farmers choosing to rehabilitate cleared land, there are hopes that if koalas survive, other wildlife with also thrive. Koala habitat is also home to a whole range of other species. So when we protect Koala Habitat, were protecting habitat for a lot of different species including a lot of other Threatened Species like quolls, or powerful owls, or lyrebirds, or lots of different marsupials like platypus, so by supporting Koala Habitat, were protecting habitat for a large range of animals. The Gondwana Rain forests of australia are amongst the oldest on the planet. A world heritage site, these cloud Forests Date to the time of the dinosaurs, when australia began separating from the ancient supercontinent of gondwana, 99 Million years ago. The plants and animals that live here provide us with the best examples of the earths stages of evolutionary history that exist. So were looking here, basically, into the very middle of the biggest Unburnt Expanse of Native Forest in northern new south wales. But in 2020, as flames ravaged at its fringes, precious pockets of its astonishing biodiversity disappeared in a flash. There were fireballs leaping 50 or maybe 100m above the canopy. The whole mountainside alight, the whole sky glowing it was like watching a volcano erupt. The type of stuff that you look at, its like, that could never burn. 0n the Dorrigo Plateau in the New England Tablelands of new south wales, Ecologist Mark Graham has been studying the impacts of the black Summer Bushfires in a region hes known intimately for more than 30 years. Half of the gazetted area of the Gondwana Rain forests of australia burnt between September 2019 and january 2020. Thats wiping a global treasure from the landscapes that were the custodians of. The mortality in these forests has been that great that what all these incredible these globally significant fauna species need to survive is not there. Dead orchids. Its deathly silent. Theres not a single bird calling. And that im crying inside at that, because ive been coming here since 1981 or � 82, and i know deep within my head what these forests should sound like. And theyre silent. As fires swept through from the west, the canopies of some of the states most treasured national parks were engulfed. More than 18 months later, many of the burnt eucalypts are resprouting in a process known as epicormic growth. But in australias harsh climate, with more frequent droughts, many will not survive. There are whole areas where we knew that species such as sphagnum frogs, which is one of our most ancient frogs, have been almost entirely wiped out, because all the Leaf Litter and all the organic matter in the forest� s floor and in the soil burnt through. And they lived within these permanently wet soaks in the forest. And theyre now gone from areas that we know they once occurred. And they have lineages going back to gondwana. So weve lost, in a geological instant, Tens Of Millions of years of biodiversity. Thats what happened on our watch. And thats infinite sadness. These trees would have to be well over 500 years old, some are well over 1,000 years old. These ancient antarctic beeches. And there are super medicines in the fungi that are within these antarctic beech. And how was that affected by the fires . Totally wiped out. Data is emerging that the bushfires of 2020 in the hottest and driest period in australian history were on a scale never experienced on this continent. Here on its burnt edges, life will never be the same. The areas of Grey Forest visible in the distance are dead. Where the Crown Fire under a 90 Kilometre Wind burnt through and theres been widespread mortality. Eucalypts dont have dormant seeds. So because of the sheer scale, its highly unlikely that eucalypts will be regenerating or germinating where whole mountainside is are dead below us. So thats effectively ecosystem collapse. Kangaroo Islands Story since the fires is one of extraordinary resilience and recovery. Separated from the mainland 10,000 years ago, it lies separated from the mainland 10,000 years ago, it lies just off the coast of south australia, and its the countrys third largest island. Scientists say the interaction between plants and animals here provides a biological window into the past, a kind of Noahs Ark of australian wildlife. But with the Islands Iron rich soils a magnet for lightning, the cataclysmic events of australias black summer conspired against it. Almost half the island around 200,000 hectares burned. Here were coming up to the area where the fire burned to, just up around here. Then it left these little patches of unburnt vegetation here, so were literally right on the edge where fire stopped. Kangaroo Island Wildlife Researcher Pat Hodgins remembers the fear which gripped him in the days which followed. It was pretty clear to us that the impacts for Threatened Species on the island was going to be pretty massive. If you see just the fire ripping through the habitat and taking everything away, its like a massive habitat loss, just like that, the click of a heartbeat, really. The Ki Dunnart is pretty distinctive. It runs along here, in front of this camera trap, and the camera will detect the movement and then take a series of photos. And this was what worried him the most. The fate of The Endangered Kangaroo Island dunnart, a tiny marsupial. When you have species like the Kangaroo Island dunnart, thats only found here, there are none on mainland australia, none on any other islands, none in captivity, and they only live in this really small location if you have a fire that comes through and takes them all out, takes out the habitat, you dont really know how that species is going to respond. So we were obviously pretty concerned there was going to be some pretty major impacts for that species. With predators on the prowl, teams worked quickly to create Safe Havens for any remaining ground species, setting up simple contraptions like these netted tunnels, where animals could hide. Nearby, drift nets were placed with cameras attached to help identify anything moving on the surface. Within a couple of days, miraculously, we had found Kangaroo Island dunnarts that had persisted here, which was fantastic, and also a whole host of other Threatened Species like southern brown bandicoots, which are endangered, southern Emu Wrens and western whipbirds. So that was amazing, to know theyd persisted in this location. With that tiny success, a Rescue Plan was hatched to secure remaining populations, and within months, the western River Refuge was created almost 400 hectares of habitat protected with a Cat Exclusion Fence that ecologists hope will become a sanctuary for the dunnarts and other species. Because of that effort and because of the funding and the resources that have gone into the Kangaroo Island dunnart, we know more about the dunnart than ever, because of the bushfire, which i guess is a bit of a silver lining. And what weve seen from that is that we have found dunnarts in a lot more locations than we previously have. And its Notjust Dunnarts Which have survived. This is a possum, a brushtail possum. Its very, very nice to sort of see these guys, burrowing down and sort of survived, or moved along in different areas. Tiny little pygmy possums, which you would never think would be able to survive such an intense fire. In the aftermath of the fires, anything that managed to survive the inferno faced a new threat on the charred landscape feral cats. With so many species already pushed to the brink, a battle is now under way to remove them from the fragile environment. So it looks like quite a contraption. Theyre a snap trap, so a cat will put its paw inside it, it will snap shut, it will hold the cat there and then we come out, basically at sunrise, at the earliest time, and euthanise the cat. Its great that they can hold a feral cat and not damage native wildlife. At the far end of the island, untouched by the fires of black summer, wildlife is flourishing. This is a map of Kangaroo Island showing where the fires occurred, this last year, and the colours, they show you the intensity of the fire in a lot of area. So the western end of the island, you can see there was some very, very intense burns. But there were also some areas that didnt burn. So there were some refuges for the wildlife to escape some of this. Here we go, echidnas. Dr Peggy Rismiller has been studying the wildlife of Kangaroo Island for more than 35 years, with a particularfocus the islands largest natural predator, the rosenbergs goanna, which can live several decades, and the short beaked echidna, an egg laying creature which is the worlds oldest surviving mammal. Everyone loves echidnas, and echidnas are really good in the environment. Both echidnas and goannas are our natural gardeners. So theyre very, very good. Theyre both diggers, that means they are cultivating the soil, they are turning over the soil, and they are helping the natural environment actually spread. Just days after the worst fires in living memory reduced much of the Islands Bushland to ash, Dr Rismiller discovered the first Vital Signs of recovery. Immediately after the fire we still found invertebrate life. We still found the ants, the termites, the spiders. All of those were also Food Sources for other things. There were areas of refuge, areas that didnt burn, where animals did take refuge, so that meant there were areas that were able to expand as the environment itself started to expand. The whole Chemical Powerhouse of the environment has changed post fire. So, afterthe fire, some of the first things We Saw were these amazing fungus that have come up, because with all of the ash, the ph has to change before other things can start to grow. And its actually one step after another, is the way that nature does it. But thats not the way that humans usually think, you know . We want things to happen and we want them to happen much quicker than nature does. So natures time is definitely different than people time. Watch your head. Like elsewhere in australia, plant and Animal Species on Kangaroo Island have evolved with fire, and although the intensity of the black Summer Bushfires were off the charts, renewal of the environment is already under way. You can see the Termite Mound is actually covered with a type of soil, and what we found was that the termites will actually mine certain chemicals from the soil, and build that into the top of their mound, and that actually makes their mounds more fire resistant. So in some places, with the bushfire, the mounds look totally intact. You can see them with everything black and burned around them, and the mound is standing there looking like it wasnt touched. I think if youre a Scientist And Biologist you have to be positive about these things. Youre looking at species such as the echidna, which was around 120 Million years ago. Now, australia has gone through ice ages, gone through greenhouse effects, gone through probably a number of catastrophic fires in that time, and echidnas are still considered one of australias most common native mammals. So they are really true survivors, and its the true survivors we should look at and perhaps try to model ourselves a bit about them, about being survivors ourselves. Theyre resilient, the ecosystems are resilient, Kangaroo Island people are resilient. Australia is still assessing the scale of the immense damage done by its black summer. But the resilience of Kangaroo Island could hold the key to protecting the nations rich biodiversity from future catastrophic fires. As public attitudes to Climate Change Begin to shift, there is renewed hope that australias remarkable wildlife will be given a fighting chance. A lot of fine weather on the way for the uk in the next couple of days. For some, the uk in the next couple of days. Forsome, rather like the uk in the next couple of days. For some, rather like We Saw on saturday, there may be more in the way of cloud. And i think that is still going to be the case for Northern Ireland and western scotland. England and wales, some sunshine to come. Warmth and humidity, the big Talking Points in sundays forecast. It was State Pan for monday, for many into tuesday, too. From mid weeks onwards, the story will get lively. Area of High Pressure built into the uk from the azores brings is very settled weather. It also pushes us into some very warm and humid airfor sunday. Temperatures will be higher than those We Saw on saturday, and the humidity will be notable. The Weather Front does make Inroads Humidity will be notable. The weatherfront does make inroads into the North West of scotland. Cloud and rain for the Western Isles and highlands. Eastern scotland in the sunshine, temperatures into the mid 20s. Sunshine, temperatures into the mid 205. 23, 24 sunshine, temperatures into the mid 20s. 23, 2a for Northern Ireland. Close to 30 in the South East of england. I weatherfront close to 30 in the South East of england. I Weather Front towards the North West starts to come into play overnight sunday, into monday morning. Some Rain For Scotland and Northern Ireland. Not much rain left on that front by the time it sinks into northern england. To the south of it, a very muddy and uncomfortable night. To the north, starting to feel a bit fresher. The fresher Air Wont get into southern england until after dark, so its going to be a very warm, sticky day across southern england, potentially 30 celsius in london. Elsewhere, temperatures high teens, Low 20s at best. There will be a lot of sunshine around. The front clears the south overnight monday, so it should be fresher for all going the south overnight monday, so it should be fresherfor all going into tuesday. The High Pressure pumps north again, a lot of fine weather for tuesday daytime. The keen eyed may have noticed this coming in from the atlantic. By The End of tuesday afternoon, rained towards the North West of scotland. The humidity starts to rise again through tuesday afternoon, welling up from the south west. By the time we get to wednesday, weve got very warm, humid air across the southern half of the uk, and this affront to making better inroads into the North West. Through wednesday daytime, that will bring Rain For Scotland and Northern Ireland. It will also destabilise this humid air further south, and then we will start to see some thunderstorms are spilling up across the channel overnight wednesday into thursday. It could be 30 celsius in the South East, butjust the high teens for the north. You get the idea of that contrast in the air. When we get that, that is the perfect formula for some big old thunderstorms on into thursday. In fact, the area of low pressure looks set to develop across northern france, which will continue to throw theirs thunderstorms a good Weight North across the uk, even as we end the week. Next weekend has the potential to be rather different to this one. Cooler, fresher, and indeed a rather showery story. We will as ever keep you up to date. For now, there is more online a few need it. The Denmark Midfielder Christian Eriksen is awake in hospital after collapsing in the euro 2020 match against finland. The incident happened near The End of the first half, when eriksen was seen to fall to the ground. His Team Mates surrounded him as he was given cpr, and distressed supporters looked on. The tournament organisers, uefa, said tonight that eriksen� s condition has been stabilised. Also on the programme. With worries about a rise in covid cases, borisjohnson signals that his roadmap for lifting all restrictions in england later this month hangs in the balance. Youve got to be cautious in order to deliver what we want to see, which is an irreversible roadmap. And the celebration of the queens official birthday has taken