Viral Photo of Burnt Kangaroo Shows Extent of Devastation Caused by Australian Bushfires

A photo of a burnt baby kangaroo stuck to a barbed-wire fence in Adelaide Hills is going viral on the Internet. This incident happened during a wildfire, which has seen the largest evacuations in the history of Australia.

The photo, which was shared by Brad Fleet, a photographer at The Advertiser, has left the netizens heartbroken. The photograph that he had shared on the photo-sharing platform Instagram showed the kind of damage the bushfire crisis has done.

Fleet captioned the heart-wrenching image as, “Feels like Australia is burning.”

View this post on Instagram

Feels like Australia is burning. @thetiser @nikonaustralia #fire #cudleecreekfire #southaustralia #fire #bushfiresaustralia

A post shared by Brad fleet (@bradfleet) on Jan 2, 2020 at 8:43pm PST

The devastating sight of the animal went viral within a very short span of time leaving social media users heartbroken, teary-eyed, sad, and helpless.

There are two horrors at play here: the fires, and the barbed wire. Barbed wire kills and maims many innocent animals. This baby might have been able to escape had he not been caught on the barbed wire.

— Deazelle (@Deazelle) January 3, 2020

Oh dear God this is the Apocalypse . It's so sad 😥

— Graceinla (@girlnamedgil) January 3, 2020

Oh my goodness, poor thing. Absolutely heart breaking 😞

— Tim (@timsutnew) January 3, 2020

This picture absolutely paints a 1000 very sad words.....

— Lee Stevenson (@stoneman011) January 3, 2020

I saw this last night on a news feed .. I’m with you 100❤️% 😢😢😢😢😢

— Craig (@aus_craig) January 4, 2020

A user on Twitter said, “Omg this is terribly sad. The world needs to start taking more notice of this the press needs to have more coverage in Australia this is a catastrophic event that effects the whole world wake up and start paying attention we are destroying our only beautiful planet(sic).”

Omg this is terribly sad 😭😭😭😭💔 The world needs to start taking more notice of this the press needs to have more coverage in Australia this is a catastrophic event that effects the whole world wake up 🌎 and start paying attention we are destroying our only beautiful planet

— A voice for animals & our 🌎 (@shaunwalters041) January 3, 2020

Another user wrote:

“Images coming out of Australia are beyond comprehension. The photo by Brad Fleet of the fully burnt Kangaroo on the fence will become one of the lasting images of this disaster. My thoughts are with everyone risking their lives to save the voiceless animals. #AustraliaBushfires”

Images coming out of Australia are beyond comprehension. The photo by Brad Fleet of the fully burnt Kangaroo on the fence will become one of the lasting images of this disaster. My thoughts are with everyone risking their lives to save the voiceless animals.😢#AustraliaBushfires pic.twitter.com/MdoZ81BOBB

— Andrew McAlpine Ⓥ (⧖) 🌱 (@Maritimegeek) January 3, 2020

As per University of Sydney ecologist Chris Dickman, around 480 million birds, mammals, and reptiles have been affected since bushfires started in September.

Dickman has also said that the actual number of damage is probably much higher.

According to a report published in 7News, farmers in southeast New South Wales have lost around 2800 animals in the bushfires since December 25, 2019.