With the brushfires in Australia raging for months now, dozens of people and millions of animals have lost their lives. The number of koala bears, specifically, has suffered a detrimental blow. Listed as “threatened” on the endangered species list (just one category beneath endangered) for the past two decades, these adorable bears have already been struggling for quite some time.

Now, with the fires destroying over 30% of their habitat and killing an estimated 8,000 koala bears and counting, there is worry that they will never recover.

The fires first sparked in New South Wales five months ago in September. Since then, there has been an overwhelming amount of support flowing into the blazing country for koala bears and countless other species. People aren’t only donating money, they are donating their time and physical effort, too. Wildlife sanctuaries, animal shelters, veterinary hospitals, and Good Samaritans have been working overtime to seek out as many scared, lost, and injured koala bears as possible.

Among the hundreds of people battling the fires and trying to save the nation’s wildlife are search and rescue dogs. These dogs brave the blazing wall of flames to seek out and rescue the helpless animals falling victim to the brushfires.

Keli is one of these courageous dogs and it was her particular skill set that led her to a baby koala stranded in the burning mass of what was once his home. The poor koala didn’t even weigh a full pound yet.

The tiny koala was immediately taken to Koala Hospital Port Macquarie to be treated for his injuries. There, he was diagnosed with an acute fungal infection. Doctors have no way of knowing if the koala bear’s mom abandoned him because of his infection or if she had been burnt in the fires. What they did know was that when Keli found him, the poor thing was alone and scared.

Once weighed, it was revealed that the baby koala weighed just over half a pound at 9.7 ounces.

After treating the joey’s fungal infection, they continued to care for him and try to increase his weight. Thankfully, earlier this month they were able to announce that he now weighs just over 2 full pounds.

The Koala hospital took to their Facebook page to announce the much-needed good news. They also shared that they plan to get him up to a goal weight of at least 5 ½ pounds before trying to release him into one of the untouched locations in Australia’s wilderness in the oncoming cooler months.

“Just a brighter moment in all the tragedy in Australia at the moment we wanted to share something good. Meet Koala Street Keli who was found abandoned on the ground on 8th September 2019, in very poor shape with a fungal infection and only weighing 275 grams. Look at Keli today a whopping 1 kg in weight, the fungal infection has gone and all his fur is regrowing. its still early days yet, we will get very excited when he makes 2.5 kg and its time for him to come into the “dehumanising trees ” in preparation for release back to the wild. Release will not happen until the cooler months, and thankfully there is still some good habitat left in selected locations,” the caption to the post read.

One study estimates that over a billion animals have died as either a direct or indirect result of the bushfires.

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A post shared by Celeste Barber (@celestebarber) on Jan 11, 2020 at 3:58pm PST

One comedian and celebrity, Celeste Barber, is using her influence on Instagram to raise awareness about the growing death toll caused by Australia’s fires. She has managed to raise $35,000,000 for firefighting and animal rescue efforts, as well as money to help support families of the victims lost in the wildfires.

We are so grateful that Keli the koala bear (named after the rescue dog that saved him) and so many others are being helped by compassionate people, and we pray that we will be seeing more stories like his. If you would like to make a donation, you can do so here.

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Source: Bored Panda