I’m seeing and reading accounts of the overwhelming numbers of wildlife killed in the bushfires tearing across Australia — a staggering estimate of a billion animals killed — and I find it hard to process. The images are nightmarish.
It’s a hard start to the year, this kind of massive loss. There are wildlife rescues to donate to in Australia, so I’m doing that, but no donation will erase the loss of these wild creatures. Some are being driven to extinction in the fires as I write.
This kind of loss can wake people up sometimes, though, to what is happening. Most of us don’t think about the incremental impacts on wildlife in our own province and the species being driven to extinction around us. Our turtle species (all of them) are threatened, mainland moose are endangered, pine martens, flying squirrels, Canada lynx — all are endangered. And how many of our bird species are at risk?
So yes, my heart breaks for the catastrophic loss of wildlife we are witnessing in Australia, and I can’t imagine how devastating it must be to witness that. But I am also worried for wildlife here in Nova Scotia. Most of us don’t treasure or recognize the value of our wild creatures enough, and don’t know that many are at risk — and our government is not doing enough to protect and recover endangered species.
If you care about wildlife and are heartbroken about the devastation in Australia, please also learn more about what is happening here. Donate to a wildlife rescue if you can (e.g., Hope for Wildlife or Cobequid Wildlife Rehabilation Centre), support the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) or the Nova Scotia Nature Trust or other environmental organizations working to protect wildlife habitat and wildlife. Pay attention when development is happening in your community and ask if wildlife and habitat protection are being considered in those proposals.
Wildlife is being driven to extinction across the world (something I never thought I would write), including in our province and country. Maybe this tragedy in Australia, this terrible loss of wild creatures and habitat, can make us sit up and look around with new concern for the natural world around us, and get involved with protecting wildlife.
Wanda Baxter, Lunenburg County
