Nature (1982–…): Season 39, Episode 2 - Australian Bushfire Rescue - full transcript

A wildfire catastrophe
engulfs Australia

on a scale never before seen.

Get out of there, mate!

Caught in its path,
vulnerable native wildlife.

Ordinary people
become bushfire heroes,

in a desperate bid
to save lives.

459...

And extraordinary
relationships are forged...

Are you ready to meet Wanda?

as human and animal
fates collide.

But a crisis with human origins



compels us to find
innovative solutions.

You ready?

Go find.

He's indicated.
- There.

What lessons can we learn

from Australia's Black Summer,

and how can we safeguard
our precious wildlife

in an even hotter future?

Something strange has
been happening on the fringes

of the Australian bush.

Koalas get most of their
moisture from eucalypt leaves.

They're typically shy
and avoid humans.

So when people start filming
them coming down

from their trees...



...and seeking out humans,

desperately thirsty for water...

Oh, sweetheart,
you're so thirsty.

This is not something
you normally see.

it's a clear sign

something is drastically wrong.

On the back of successive
dry years,

2019 is the driest on record.

And the season ahead is set
to be one of the hottest.

It will be remembered
as the Black Summer.

It starts on the east coast
in early spring.

By the time summer arrives,
more than 100 separate fires

are tearing across
the landscape...

The scale of this bushfire
emergency

is hard to get your head around.

some of them
joining up to become megafires,

so large they create
their own weather

and become virtually
unstoppable.

Sydney is tonight
surrounded by a ring of fires.

and hell came to Bilpin.

Utter devastation.

These megafires advance faster

and burn with a greater ferocity
than the fires of the past.

Firefighters work desperately
to save homes and human lives.

But forests,
and the life within them,

are consumed and incinerated.

It's a fire season
unlike any in modern history.

On a stretch of coastline
busy with holiday makers,

the Currowan fire is sparked
by a single lightning strike,

but it grows into a monster
spanning more than 60 miles.

95, we are retreating...

Its speed is so
extreme, firefighters are caught unaware.

Come on,
it's gone further up there.

In its midst,
a kangaroo sanctuary

has miraculously survived.

It's alright. It's okay.

A mobile vet care unit
has arrived to treat casualties

from the surrounding forest.

I've got a patient
for you, Cath.

Everything from
an abandoned baby swamp wallaby

to one of Australia's
most feared reptiles,

a deadly tiger snake.

Come on. Come on.

A 10-month-old joey,
who's been named Sage,

needs her bandages changed daily

while her badly
burnt feet recover.

- Sorry.
- That nail down there.

He's already lost that nail.

Yeah it came off.

If they lose
the nails on those...

their big middle toes...
- This one.

then they can't
really hop properly.

They can't really do
what they need to do.

The next arrival to the clinic

is a juvenile rainbow lorikeet.

So I'm assuming
that he's been in a hollow.

Mum and Dad haven't come back.

And he's at some point
decided to abandon the nest.

They're known for
their boisterous personalities,

but this one seems
uncharacteristically subdued.

I don't know if you can
say a bird's traumatized,

but I haven't seen a bird
come in like this before.

Hello, little one. Hi.

My biggest question is the smoke

and how we know what
internal damage has been done?

Yeah.

And he doesn't smell sour
or anything.

The bird seems
physically healthy,

but at this age,
still needs care and company.

I definitely would try
and buddy him up

as soon as, you know,

you can find one of similar...
Similar age.

Yeah, yep.
I'll put the call out.

We'll get him a friend.

Yeah.
There you go little one.

Hey.

Outside,
there's a new patient...

Hello!
Oh, how gorgeous.

So we've got...

a baby bare-nosed wombat.

How long
have you had this one?

- I just picked it up.
- Just picked it up?

Just half an hour ago.

I think she's been with her
deceased mother,

because she smells really bad.

She's been named Wanda,

after being found
wandering along a road

all by herself.

She's still very much like

she should be
with her mum, right,

for a really long time
still to come, yeah.

Yes. Yeah.

Yeah, so I imagine
that her mother

has been burned in the fires.

She's just gone back
to the burrow

and she's probably succumbed
to her injuries.

At around 12 months of age,

Wanda would normally
still be suckling

and would stay at her
mother's side for another year.

This is just an assessment

'cause it was picked up
on the road as an orphan.

And so does it need treatment?

She's pretty
yucky around the nose.

Wanda has burns
to her airways

which will need
urgent treatment.

And without her mother
and the safety of their burrow,

she'll need ongoing care.

Oh, she's so cute.

Just 85 miles
furthersouth, a double tragedy unfolds.

The fires have swept through
a koala sanctuary

painstakingly established
over decades.

Yeah, I think
it's going to be thin

like all of the other ones.

And if you got the towel

we could
drop the towel over its head.

Land clearing
has threatened the survival

of the iconic species.

But this refuge was home to one
of the few populations

that had been
increasing in numbers.

The founder of the sanctuary,
James Fitzgerald,

is now searching
for the survivors.

They were lucky
to survive the fire,

but luck's running out.

Koalas like this
one have survived

the sudden inferno.

But if they're not already
suffering

life-threatening burns,

with the few remaining pockets
of green leaves now dying,

they'll soon face starvation.

I mean,
they all need a full vet check,

and some of them
we haven't been able to save.

This one, it does feel very thin
but we'll get it to the vet

and get it properly assessed.

Keep it quiet.

Good.

Very good.

But koalas haven't
been the only victims here.

I'm also a volunteer
Rural Fire Service.

And I was out fighting that fire
from the 30th,

and just 'cause of the wind,
I was worried.

My Group Captain
was coming in a fire truck.

So yeah, and you could see
he had tears in his eyes

and other... the other guys did.

Just over the hill there,
the three American pilots died.

A scorch mark,
fragmented pieces of wreckage

leading into the bush...

All that is left
of the C-130 tanker.

Ian McBeth,
Rick DeMorgan, and Paul Hudson

had come from the US to support
Australian firefighters.

They'd been battling to save
the koala sanctuary,

dumping fire-retardant
at low altitude

in gusty winds.

You know, we really appreciate

what they did here, helping.

To have... to have them die here is just...

I...

you know, it's terrible.

For James,
their sacrifice has compounded

the moral urgency
of saving the koalas.

I mean, there's just
nothing you can really do

for the families, but I guess
what we're trying to just do

is say we're never
going to forget them.

But smoke and flames
aren't the only killers

this Black Summer.

On the continent's southern
edge,

in the city of Adelaide,

a colony of grey headed flying
foxes are becoming restless.

Wildlife veterinary scientist
Wayne Boardman is increasingly

concerned by the prolonged
high temperatures.

I've become particularly
fond of the species,

having researched them
for several years.

They suffer from what we call
heat stress events.

When the temperature starts
to get to around

about 38 degrees centigrade,
they start to flap their wings

to try and get a bit
of evaporative cooling.

As the mercury pushes
higher, they seek out water

in a behavior known as dipping.

They fly along the water,
touch the water on the chest,

and then fly up into a tree,
hang upside down,

and the water
drops into their mouth

and gives them a little bit of
a cooling opportunity, as well.

But temperatures over
105 degrees can be deadly.

In the week before Christmas, a
four-day heatwave peaks at 113.

And 10,000 bats,
many of them juveniles,

fall from their roosts.

We have lost,

we think, approximately 50%
of the Adelaide population.

It's a tragic event.

But not all
the fallen bats perish.

Wayne and his wife Katrina
rescue as many as they can.

It's quite hard but it's
healing really well actually.

Mm.

God, it's left it quite
a bit of a scar, hasn't it?

Mm.

I might just put
some Betadine on it

just to make sure it's okay.

They're now surrogate
parents to 118 young bats.

I've been working
with the flying foxes

for about 30 years now,

and I've never seen
anything like this.

I'm cutting around about
27 kilos a night of fruit,

mainly apples, 'cause apples
seems to be the fruit

that's more palatable to them.

Don't need to bite me.

Some of them are hand raised,

so they are quite
interested in your hair.

But they're just interested
animals,

they're very intrigued
and curious, yeah.

Hello.

You want my glasses?

Fear of bats
has intensified

since the outbreak
of the novel coronavirus.

But left alone, flying foxes
pose little risk to humans.

And they're important
pollinators and propagators

of the native trees
they feed on.

Their normal diet
is native fruits like figs

and also gum blossom.

So their eventual
release won't just

help rebuild
their decimated colony,

they'll also play
a critical role

in the rejuvenation
of the forests.

The 100 we have
in care at the moment,

they're probably the last
of the generation

that's just been born.

We just hope
that they'll survive.

Just southwest of Adelaide,

the extreme Black Summer heat
is also being felt

on Australia's
third largest island.

Cut off from the mainland
around 10,000 years ago

by rising sea levels,

Kangaroo Island
is now a veritable ark

for dozens of endangered
subspecies found nowhere else.

More recently, it's become
a safe haven for koalas,

isolated from disease that has
affected mainland populations.

It's also home to a very
particular parrot...

the endangered Kangaroo Island
glossy black cockatoo.

They're among the most
diet-specialized birds

in the world,

feasting on just one species
of tree... the drooping sheoak.

They use their powerful claws
and specialized beaks

to prise protein-rich kernels

from the sheoak's tough
seed cases.

The birds are almost as fussy
about where to nest,

preferring eucalypt hollows
at just the right height

and diameter.

But competition can be fierce.

To help, conservationists have
erected artificial nest boxes,

growing the endangered
population from a low of 160

to almost 400.

Or at least that was the case
before the fires.

With dry lightning strikes
providing the initial sparks...

...strong winds propel walls
of flame across the island.

Fire front after fire front
raging out of control.

This remains a dangerous
situation.

An emergency warning is in place
for central Kangaroo Island.

It takes just two weeks

to reduce
nearly half the island to ash.

Wildlife filmmaker Beau Eastman

has been documenting
the glossy black cockatoos

in the island's north.

He's searching for any signs
of hope.

This is the nature reserve

where I filmed
the glossy cockatoos

last time before the fires,

and this is one of
the prime habitats

for these birds
here on the island.

And when I come out here,
the best way to find these birds

is by listening to the crunching
on the sheoak seeds.

I'm looking around
and all the sheoak seeds,

they're just absolutely toasted.

What it sounds like now is just
absolute silence.

It's not a good sound at all.

The inferno has wiped
out this entire feeding area.

It's this unprecedented
intensity and scale

that has made
the Black Summer so deadly.

Australia's wildlife has evolved
to survive fires of the past.

Koalas have perhaps
the simplest strategy.

They climb higher,
into the treetops,

with all but the most ferocious
fires sparing the canopy.

The echidna,
a peculiar egg-laying mammal,

takes the opposite approach,

digging deep into the earth
right in the path of the fire,

and slowing its metabolism
for a hibernation-like slumber

until the danger has passed.

Kangaroos
take a different tack again.

They're the race-cars
of the Australian bush,

engineered with
powerful rear legs,

a counter-balancing tail,
and elastic tendons that store

and release the energy
of every hop.

This sophisticated machinery

allows them to briefly reachspeeds
of over 35 miles an hour.

But rather than waste valuable
energy outrunning the flames,

they search out the thinnest
part of the fire front

and leap right through, to the
burnt ground on the other side.

All these adaptations are
finely tuned to the fire regime

that has dominated Australia
for tens of thousands of years.

Frequent fires predominantly
burning at lower intensities

and leaving
unburnt patches of refuge.

But with the climate
warming and drying,

we're facing
a frightening new normal...

...megafires that advance
so rapidly

that the fastest can't flee,

and that are more likely
to consume the treetops...

...leaving tree-dwelling mammals
nowhere to hide.

Which is why on Kangaroo Island,

koalas outnumber
all other patients

arriving at
an emergency field hospital.

459, female, no baby.

We'll give them a clean,
we'll probably bandage them.

and then we'll fold that over.

What a good girl.

The new
admissions at the moment,

we're getting around
about 20 a day.

My understanding is that we've
got 60 to 70 koalas in hospital

that have been
previously admitted

and are under ongoing treatment.

The influx is so great,

the Defence Force
has been called in.

If there's any need like this,

Defence will mobilize vets
to assist.

We do our best with
little babies like this.

She was really feisty
'cause she's in a lot of pain.

So this is
a younger female koala.

Her burns aren't too bad,

so giving her some bandages
across those areas.

We'll just have to see how she
goes over the next few days,

make sure she's eating
and maintains her hydration.

It really is a long-term effort,
and these koalas,

even after
they get over their burns,

are going to need a lot of care

before they can go back out
into the wild.

An army of volunteers
bring a steady stream

of casualties
to the triage tent.

Hello buddy. Come on.

Island local Lisa Karran

has brought in dozens already.

- Koala?
- Yes.

Excellent.

And she's heading
straight back out again.

This time, it's to
a eucalypt plantation nestled

among the island's
wilderness areas

once supporting
hundreds of koalas.

We couldn't just
sitand watch things sort of unfold.

Decided to get onto
the fire grounds

and see what we could do,

just anything we could
to help the wildlife.

Ooh, kids are out!
That's a good sign!

Whoa hello, shh.

Whoa! Good boy.

Oh, you've burnt bum, darling.

That's a good boy.
You're only little, hey!

Mum, there's another one.

Normally you would never
find a koala

at the bottom of a tree

unless it was sick
or severely injured.

They don't like to be
on the ground.

Suffering burns
and dehydration,

they lack even
the strength to climb.

They just sit there.

And we've found ones
that have been...

that have died within a day,
so you sort of think,

"Oh, I was a little bit
too late."

But yeah, there's so much ground to cover,

it's just... it's incredible
how much has gone.

Just as they are about
to leave, a distressing sight.

If she doesn't move
then there's something wrong.

Two female kangaroos,

both with joeys.

The mothers have carried them
in their pouches,

protecting them
from the flames...

...and are still suckling,

giving up
every last drop of sustenance.

But their own feet have been
charred to the bone

from the incredible heat
of the burnt ground.

It's a strange feeling.

You've got something so injured,

yet it's still trying
to protect its young,

and she did a really good job of

looking after them
during the fires.

The adult kangaroos
won't survive

their horrific injuries.

Euthanasia
is the only humane solution...

...leaving the two joeys
bushfire orphans.

Sam from the wildlife
park was called to come

and help us,
so he got a tranquilizer gun.

Spent a while trying to dart
the two younger joeys.

Obviously when they've

been through what they've
beenthrough and we can't catch them,

you know there's no food
around here for them,

so they're just slowly
going to die of starvation.

So we're just going to give them
the best chance

that we can give them.

Still a long way
from weaning,

they'll need months of nursing,

but at least now,
they have a chance.

I couldn't bear
to leave them behind.

No definitely, I mean,
it should be fine.

Thank you.

You'll be okay.

Just across the island,

Beau has received
some exciting news...

a possible sighting of
glossy black cockatoos.

And these people have said,

"We've seen 12 birds fly
over the property,"

which to me,
that is unbelievable.

So I cannot wait
to get out there

to see if it's true.

He's hoping
to capture them on film,

proof that some
at least have survived.

This is really good.

There they are...

the unmistakable brilliant
splash of red under the tail.

I'd literally
had no hope in me.

This is completely... this has
completely changed my mind.

This flock of around 20

has found safety and sustenance,

a grove of sheoak inan
unburnt corner of the island.

You can see that
there's plenty of sheoak seeds

on those trees, you can see
those little spots

from a distance.

That's what they're feeding on.

The population
is still far from secure.

The fires have
pretty much taken out

the whole western end
of the island,

and what's left is just this on
the eastern side of the island.

But at least
it's a glimmer of hope.

It's long-overdue rain that
eventually defeats the fires.

In Australia's eastern
states alone,

the flames have consumed
an area greater

than the size of Indiana.

More than 20% of all forests
have been lost.

Survivors will find
little to eat.

On Kangaroo Island,
a family of hungry roos

search for patches
of unburnt foliage,

or new shoots
pushing through the ash.

Even a dead leaf
is worth trying.

But on the Karran family
property,

the two orphan joeys are waking
up in a very different world.

Good morning, yous two.

They've been named
Ellie and Eden,

and now they have
three other orphan siblings.

We have,
Tulsa and Dawson,

the old married couple.
They hate being apart,

and they are
constantly hugging and kissing.

And we also got GG, who can't go
outside at the moment,

and he sleeps
on his own little spot

in the lounge room, as well.

Do you want to get up?

Lisa's children
are helping raise the mob.

For kids, you know,
under a normal circumstance,

you'd be quite worried.

What they've seen is horrific,
as well.

So they've grown to appreciate
exactly what's gone on

on the island,
what the animals have suffered.

If we hadn't have done it,

I think we would have struggled
to cope

with the enormity
of the disaster.

The young roos
seem to be fitting in well

with their adoptive family.

But the ultimate goal

is for them
to one day return to the wild.

We don't want them
to get bored,

and we want to keep them
stimulated.

So adding toys and carrots
hanging from the enclosure,

it helps them to play
and to have a bit of fun,

'cause joeys normally,
play a lot with...

with their mums and each other,

and it's really important
for the development

to be able to do that.

They'll be able to function
as normal kangaroos

and go back into the wild,

which is a really beautiful
thing to be able to see.

Back on Australia's
east coast,

it's been a month since fires
devastated

James' wildlife sanctuary.

If there are any
remaining koalas here,

they'll be on the brink of
starvation,

and almost impossible to find.

So James has called in
an expert.

Bear's a koala
detection dog.

He's got a lot of high energy

and he really
likes finding koalas.

Hey.
Boom, baby, you ready?

Go find!

He can pick up, you know,

very fine scent of a koala.

Detection dogscan
locate koalas up to 20 times

faster than human searchers.

It's a method pioneered
by ecologist and trainer

Dr. Romane Cristescu.

Bear is trained on koala fur.

So basically he does a search,

and then when
he smells that scent, he drops.

And then I catch up with him,
and he's... he's usually

keep going
until the next patch of scent,

and so hopefully by the end
of that trail,

we'll find a koala.

But there's no knowing
if the trail

he's following today
will lead to a live koala.

I think
I'm finishing with that patch.

Do you want to keep moving
to the next one?

Any ideas
where we're going next?

I reckon the hill.

James, he's indicated.

- Ah, there.
- Oh, yeah.

Excellent.
Good boy, Bear!

Good boy!

Bear's sensitive nose
has located another survivor

who can now be saved
from inevitable starvation.

The rescued koalas
are being cared for

at the
Australian National University.

But even here,
what to eat is a challenge.

Koala nutrition expert
Dr. Karen Ford

has the unenviable task
of serving breakfast,

lunch, and dinner to some
of Australia's pickiest eaters.

They'll grab a branch

and just basically
give it a smell.

If they don't like it,
they'll just drop it

and look at you, going,
"Where's the proper food?

Give me something else."

Every one of her
guests is extremely limited

in exactly which eucalypt
leaves they can safely consume.

He's definitely
eatensome of that as well, so I guess

that maybe's just a one though.

Alright, just a one.

We perceive them
as being fussy,

but it's actually because
they can detect the nutritional

and toxin composition
of the leaves.

So if we give them something

and they seem to be being fussy,
it probably means

we've actually given them
something they can't eat.

Each morning,
Karen has to head into the bush

to hunt
for just the right leaves.

Most of these trees
are scribbly gums.

These are one of the favorites
of the koalas to eat.

Unfortunately, it's getting
a little bit hard for me

to find scribbly gum
to feed them at the moment

because a lot of the trees
around here

burnt in the fires,

so I'm just kind of
picking trees

along the edge of the fire line

that still have some leaves
left on them.

But if eucalypt leaves
are so toxic,

how is it that koalas
can eat them at all?

When they first start
feeding on eucalypt leaves,

they eat this really disgusting,

runny poo
from their mums called pap,

and that inoculates their gut

with some of the bacteria
that are required

in order to digest
the eucalypt leaves.

So yeah,
they get it from their mums,

right... right from the start.

From an early age,

each koala's gut flora
is being programmed

to detoxify the eucalypt leaves
from their local area.

We really don't want
to upset the gut flora

and the enzymes that they use
to metabolize the toxins,

because otherwise,
if we put them back out

in that environment,

we might find that we've
disrupted that balance so much

that they actually can't survive
on those leaves anymore.

Wanda, the baby wombat
orphaned by the fires,

has found a new home
in the suburbs of Sydney.

Hello, girl.

She's being looked after

by a volunteer carer,
Tracey Reid.

Her burnt airways
have recovered.

5.55.

She's putting on weight...

...and settling right in.

Wanda!

I thought she'd be more
stand-offish,

a lot more frightened.

You rascal. Come on.

She just bonded very quickly.

She was beautiful.

In the absence
of their natural mothers,

young wombats will bond
with human carers

in a process known
as imprinting.

They're just like
a human toddler really.

They've got their own
personalities,

they get overtired,
they get cranky,

they want their bottle.

They just don't cry as much,
which is lovely.

Good girl. Are you hungry?

She always likes to hold
your finger or your hand.

With all my animals that
I've ever had,

there's always been a moment

within probably
the first couple of days,

normally during feeding, where
they just kind of look at you

and you realize that they've
lost everything and you're it.

Okay, you're done.

But if Wanda is
to one day survive in the wild,

Tracey needs to break
the human connection.

Today is the first step
on that long road.

She's about to be introducedto
another bushfire orphan, Ben.

Are you ready
to meet Wanda?

She's going to be your new girl.

Wanda?

But there's no
guarantee they'll get along.

After a brief moment
of hesitation...

Look, here's Ben.

Wanda seems to
welcome her new companion.

I'm very pleased.

They're really good, they'll
be good mates together now.

By socializing with Ben,

Wanda will gradually become
more independent of Tracey,

and a little closer
to returning to nature.

Come on.

But for Tracey, there's now
twice as much work...

...and twice as much mischief.

Looking after the wombats
and trying to do work

and raise a family
at the same time,

it's a definite juggle.

And Wombat teeth,

designed for munching
tough native grasses,

never stop growing, making them
terrible house guests.

They have destroyed a door,

they've worked on
the leather couch

and taken a corner off that.

We've had to put up
three baby gates.

They have peed in
a lot of corners.

Terrible, but also adorable.

Volunteer carers can only save
so many animals.

Scaling up our response to meet
the magnitude of the crisis

will take new levels
of resourcing and innovation.

Even more so
when it comes to isolated

and inaccessible country.

On the eastern edge of
Australia's

Great Dividing Range,

the Oxley Wild Rivers
National Park

is a maze of deep gorges
and jagged ridgelines.

Brush tailed rock wallabies,
with thickly padded paws

for cushioning
and long tails for balance,

have made these craggy
outcrops their homes.

They've waited out the wildfires
in cool, rocky caves.

But emerged to find
their precious foraging grounds

on the slopes below
now a barren wasteland.

Already endangered, this could
be the end for the wallabies.

Enter Operation Sweet Potato...

...an audacious plan by the
New South Wales National Parks

and Wildlife Service
to save the hungry marsupials.

Thousands of pounds
of moisture-rich carrots

and sweet potatoes tumble
from the sky.

It's an expensive exercise,

but the only way to sustain
the species

till the vegetation returns.

Australia already has
the highest mammal

extinction rate of any country,
and the Black Summer has pushed

even more vulnerable
species to the brink.

The flying fox deaths
in Adelaide

have been mirrored inother
colonies around Australia.

Preserving these important
forest pollinators

is going to require more than
just rescuing the fallen.

Doctor Wayne Boardman
is testing an idea

that might just have saved
the 10,000 flying foxes.

So what we're doing is

we're using a household
mister system.

You know,
it's quite a cheap system,

and then putting it as high
as we can in the tree

so that we can get
this misting effect

where the flying foxes are,

which will hopefully reduce
the temperature in that area.

That's looking great, John.

That's fantastic.

We've got these three sensors
in the Botanic Park

and the new sensorthat
we've put up for the trial,

all at 17 degrees centigrade.

So this is the one that
we are looking at today.

Okay, John,
you can turn it on now.

Oh, it's a fine mist, isn't it?

That's good to see.

The question is,
will it work?

Have you had a look, John?

Yeah, come and have a look?

So look, the temperature's gone
down three degrees

in comparison to
the other sensors in the park.

It's even over sort of
15 minutes,

which is quite amazing.

So it worked, it was fantastic.

I'm quite surprised how
effective those misters

have been,
even on a cool day like today,

so I'm hopeful that in the
summer when we put it out,

you're going to get
more of an effect.

And that might well be
the difference

between life and death
for a flying fox.

Successful trials like this one

open the way
for scaling up the system.

And because flying foxes

congregate in such large
colonies,

thousands could be protected
at low cost

here in Adelaide
and around Australia.

But sometimes human efforts
to help wildlife

can also succumb to fire.

On Kangaroo Island,
many of the nest boxes

critical to
the glossy black cockatoos'

revival have been destroyed.

Conservationists are racing
to rebuild them,

but with the breeding season
in full swing,

surviving nest boxes
are in high demand.

The cockatoos mate for life,

producing just one chick
every second year.

This pair needs a home
for their future family.

But galahs compete with
the glossy black cockatoos

for nesting sites,

and now they're also
eyeing up the empty box.

It's a standoff.

Neither party is willing
to make the first move...

until
persistence eventually pays off

for the glossy black cockatoos.

For this breeding season
at least, they have a nest.

But until we turn
climate change around,

more Black Summers
are inevitable.

Every year, Australia battles
the bushfires on all fronts

and with all its might,
but is now losing the war.

Ensuring our wildlife survives
requires a complete rethink.

Many experts are calling
for a holistic approach

to managing bushland
and the life it supports.

It's an idea that's thousands
of years old.

BARBER:

For Aboriginal people, fire is
seen very much as an ally,

as a necessity,
as part of our survival.

It has kept us warm,
it has cooked our food,

it has helped us
in making our artifacts.

It's part of our ceremonies.

At a cultural level,
it's a ridiculous notion

to think that you would
take on fire in a fight.

Tom, just that other spot there.

And you guys help your mum,
go one...

one go the other side
of your mum.

Once a fire fighter,
Den Barber now teaches

the indigenous land management
practices of his ancestors.

We need to look
after our parent trees,

'cause they're very important.

So a good method is to come
close to the base,

the idea being that this is
a single ignition point,

and rather than have
the intensity of the heat,

of a line of heat running into
the base of this tree, right,

coming from this way,
we're lighting from the base

and the heat
is going to move away from it.

We can do spot, spot, spot,
and spot on this corner.

Away yous go.

Cultural burning clears away

the dead and dry undergrowth

that could fuel a deadly inferno
in the height of summer.

By burning slowly

and at the optimal time
for each specific ecosystem,

the fire spreads gently,
preserving healthy trees

and allowing animals
of all sizes to escape.

It's about knowing the trees.

It's about knowing what
animals inhabit

that particular area,
what's nesting.

If for example, we had burnt
boxwood country, which is,

you know,
the next system across,

and then we'd come over
to gum tree country

maybe a month or two later.

It'll only run into those that
you've just previously burnt,

and it'll go out because
there's no fuel for it to burn.

The mosaic of old
and recent burns fosters

a more diverse understory

and leaves refuges
for animal inhabitants.

Country is not just about,

you know,
the mountains and the hills

and the rivers
and the landscape.

Country,
when we talk about country,

we talk about everything in it,

from the trees right down
to those plants,

of course all the bugs,
the snakes,

everything has its place and its
purpose, and that includes us.

Just up and around
to the right, boys.

It's an approach
that's already working.

In Australia's top end,
over the last 15 years,

cultural burning has reduced
the area destroyed by wildfires

by close to 50%.

Faced with a volatile future,

we'll need to draw on
all our human ingenuity,

from the latest science

to ancient wisdom.

Many of the koalas rescued by
James and Bear are now healthy,

but they'll be staying in care
a little longer

until their forest homes
are ready to support them.

Excuse me.

Wanda and Ben are moving

into a wombat halfway house.

They will actually be able
to learn how to dig a burrow

a lot deeper, a lot further,

their muscle strength
will really build up.

If we can get them
strong enough,

successfully releasing them
back out into the wild,

it's so important
for the species.

it's like my last goodbye.

Katrina's young flying
foxes are finally ready

to return to their colony.

It is, they're my babies.

It's okay.

Just got to
get on with it.

Got to get them out there.
- It's a good thing.

I know it's a good thing.

On Kangaroo Island,
Ellie and Eden

will need hand feeding
until they're fully weaned.

But the koalas Lisa rescued
are being gradually

released into patches
of unburnt forest.

It's really exciting
to know

that they've made it
through the entire fire.

And then to be able
to be set free

to where they belong,
it's amazing.

This is always
the best part.

Straight up the tree.

Look at her go.

Every single survivor

is hope
for the future of their kind.

But their destiny
is now tied to ours.

The only way to avoid
more Black Summers,

for the sake of
all life on Earth,

is our species taking action.