The inferno that’s currently going on in Australia is absolutely devastating, and it’s still greatly affecting the country. New South Wales and North-East Victoria are still in grave peril as we speak, although the situation has luckily improved a bit since the bushfires started.
We can’t commend the brave men and women enough who have been trying their best to put a halt to the devastating flames and helping the affected people and animals all over Australia.
Recently, 3000 reserve soldiers were called up to assist in combatting the flames, as well as lending a hand in numerous evacuations and rescues.
All of these soldiers work incredibly long hours and have been giving it their all, working tirelessly.
A specific regiment of these soldiers has now gone viral all over the world thanks to amazing pictures of them helping and feeding koalas.
These brave men and women are in need of some well-deserved rest after going through seemingly endless and tiring shifts, but a large amount of those soldiers decide to spend their time off doing something else. In fact, they’re not even stopping helping the country recover from this terrible natural disaster.
The soldiers from the 16th Regiment Emergency Support Force chose to nurse and care for koalas whose habitat has been destroyed by the wildfires. The photos were posted on the official Facebook page of the unit, where they quickly went viral.
The images are absolutely adorable, and it shows the troops helping out at Cleland Wildlife Park, where a number of koalas now reside the devastation of their natural habitat.
“16 Regiment Emergency Support Force have been using their rest periods to lend a helping hand at the Cleland Wildlife Park , supporting our furry friends during feeding time and by building climbing mounts inside the park. A great morale boost for our hard working team in the Adelaide Hills,” the Facebook caption reads.
Aside from caring and nurturing the amazingly cute koalas, the troops also made new building mounts in the wildlife park so that the animals would have something to climb on. Koalas naturally spend time in the trees, as it’s their safe place to cool off from the heat and it’s also a place where they can hide from predators. Not that the latter is really an issue here, but climbing their trees is simply part of their DNA.
Garnett Hall, the director, and also a vet at the West Coast Veterinary Hospital, knows a thing or two about aiding koalas.
“The most challenging part is reducing stress and pain,” Hall told BoredPanda. “Many of these koalas have extensive burns, which would be incredibly painful. On top of that, they are scared, their homes have been destroyed, their friends are likely all dead, and they’ve been taken to a strange place for treatment. We do our best to give them appropriate pain relief and sedation, but cleaning and dressing their burns is still a difficult thing.”
Veterinarians from the 9th brigade also visited Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park to help out with the injured animals. It’s absolutely amazing and heartwarming to see how the brave men and women in uniform would rather spend their free time helping the local wildlife than resting in bed.
“It’s been really enjoyable to have private soldiers who were attached to the veteran team as drivers, but I actually have been using as veterinary assistants, and it’s been so helpful to have an extra set of hands to help hold animals and to let me treat their wounds. It’s been great and they’ve absolutely loved it,” Hall concluded.
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