Bushfires Give Predators the Advantage

By Eveline Rijksen, University of Sydney and Chris Dickman, University of Sydney | December 13, 2014 05:23pm ET

This article was originally published on The Conversation. The publication contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Bushfires are a part of life in Australia, and when they have run their course we pick up where we left off and carry on. But if you happen to be a small animal, surviving the bushfire is only the start of your worries.

Research now suggests that survival in recently-burnt areas is not a level playing field.

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NSW bushfires: koala sighting gives conservationists hope

First report of the species in upper Blue Mountains for 70 years allays fears that it had been wiped out

Conservationists are hopeful that wildlife coped better with the NSW Blue Mountains fires than first feared after a koala was spotted in the upper reaches of the mountains for the first time in 70 years.

The koala was seen crossing the Great Western Highway near Wentworth Falls, which is 900m above sea level.

The sighting is the first of its kind in the upper Blue Mountains since the 1940s. It is thought that the koala, and others, managed to escape October’s fierce bushfires, which burned through about 140,000 hectares, by fleeing to areas they usually don't inhabit.

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