Biodiversity after the Australian bushfires

This is my eighth summer in Australia. It took a little while to adapt to Christmas and New Year in the heat – swopping the once obligatory novelty sweater for swimming togs – but now it feels almost normal.

This summer has been different though. The country has been on fire.

For countless days beaches have been deserted, blue skies turned orangey-brown with smoke obscuring the summer sun, the eerie odour of burning bushlands heavy in the air.

We’re used to bushfires in Australia, but this season the fires have been unprecedented. They started earlier than usual, their scale has been enormous, and they’ve had devastating consequences. Thirty-three people have been killed, thousands of homes have been damaged or destroyed and at least 1 billion mammals, birds and reptiles are thought to have perished.