Australian ecologist estimates 480 million animals perished in fires

A koala is drinking water from a bottle given by a firefighter in Cudlee Creek, South Australia. Thousands of koalas are feared to have died in a wildfire-ravaged area north of Sydney, further diminishing Australia's iconic marsupial. - AP

SYDNEY: Four hundred and eighty million animals could have died in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) since the bushfires started in September, according to one ecologist's estimate.

The "figure is based on a 2007 report for the World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) on the impacts of land clearing on Australian wildlife" in NSW, the University of Sydney said on Friday in a statement.