Heartbreaking photos of a koala crying on seeing the dead body of a companion have gone viral on social media platforms. The picture shows the koala with its face buried in arms as if mourning the death of a dear one. The Kangaroo Island in Australia is charred with corpses of animals that died in the fire in the past weeks. The surviving koala was rescued by people from an animal rescue. Pictures show an officer from the Humane Society's Animal Rescue team picking up the mourning koala in a towel as its companion's corpse is seen lying in a river. Australian Bushfires: These Kangaroo and Koala Rescue Pics and Videos Will Leave You in Tears.

As bushfires continued in Australia, Humane Society International sent a team to the island to help trapped animals from affected areas. Almost one-third of the island has been destroyed in the fire and 80 percent of koala habitat has been swept clean. Australian Bushfires: Heartbreaking Viral Picture of Kangaroo Burnt to Death While Escaping From Raging Fires Shows The Reality of This Disaster.

Koala Mourning Death of Friend in Australian Bushfires:

HSI's senior specialist in disaster response Kelly Donithan told One Green Planet, "These are some of the toughest scenes I’ve ever witnessed as an animal rescuer: the bodies of charred animals as far as the eye can see. But as we set out each day on search and rescue, we're still finding animals alive, injured, dazed or traumatised, and it's such a relief to be able to give them immediate life."

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Steven Selwood, South Australia Veterinary Emergency Management team leader at the hospital, the island is believed to have had 46,000 koalas before the fire. And as few as just 9,000 are just remaining. He said, "The fires here were particularly ferocious and fast-moving so we're seeing a lot less injured wildlife than in other fires. A lot of the wildlife was incinerated." Kangaroo Island is the only place in Australia where the population is entirely free of chlamydia, a sexually transmitted infection also found in humans which is fatal to koalas.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 17, 2020 10:24 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).