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Photos: Rescuers race to save koalas and other animals in Australia

At Kangaroo Island, a popular tourist destination and wildlife park, rescuers try to save what they can

Koalas with burned paws are treated in a temporary hospital tent at Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park, an organization and wildlife park helping to save koalas on the island off southeastern Australia. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Emma Veritay, a volunteer at the wildlife park, tends to the wounds of a koala. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Lt. Kynan Lang ,a reservists helping Kangaroo Island to recover from the fires, visits the site where his uncle and cousin lost their lives trying to save others. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

Scientists estimate that, so far in Australia, fires have killed hundreds of millions to more than 1 billion native animals. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Animal carcasses litter the island’s rugged landscape. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Koalas wait for treatment at the wildlife park. The 50-acre property, surrounded by burn scars, was untouched by the blazes. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Water is dropped on a blaze on Kangaroo Island. Fires overran nearly half of the 1,700-square-mile island. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

A koala recovers on Kangaroo Island. Some koalas are in such bad shape they uncharacteristically move toward humans, either unable to see or starved and disoriented. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

“There’s not much that isn’t threatening koalas at the moment,” says Sam Mitchell, who has owned and run the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park for seven years. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Nick Clark, one of the head farmers at Kangaroo Island Wool, said the blazes killed some of the company’s sheep and destroyed $50,000 worth of wool. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)