A joey stands dazed and alone on a charred patch of land after the bushfires ravaging Australia claimed its mother.
The young kangaroo was separated from her in Glen Innes, New South Wales – a state facing unprecedented danger as authorities declared a national emergency.
Three people have died and 200 homes have been lost to the fires raging across the country.
But the joey was a reminder of the wider toll.
As many as 350 koalas are also estimated to have died in fires at the Lake Innes Nature Reserve, according to Koala Conservation Australia President Sue Ashton. “We think most of the animals were incinerated – it’s like a cremation,” she said. “They have been burnt to ashes in the trees.”
The state of emergency covers huge swathes of the east coast and authorities are urging residents in high-risk areas to evacuate ahead of “catastrophic” fire conditions.
Fire chiefs have warned of “the most dangerous bushfire week this nation has ever seen”.
Sixty fires are raging in New South Wales, 40 of which are out of control. There are also 50 fires in Queensland, plus blazes in the West and South.
An extreme drought has left many areas tinder-dry. The conditions, combined with temperatures in the high 30Cs and strong winds, are expected to present some 1,300 volunteer firefighters with a life-threatening challenge.
But as emergency services made preparations, the federal government was slammed for refusing to discuss the role climate change has had in worsening the fire risk.
Deputy PM Michael McCormack yesterday dismissed such concerns as the “ravings of inner-city lunatics”.
Australia’s worst bushfires on record destroyed thousands of homes in Victoria in February 2009, killing 173 people and injuring 414 on a day the media dubbed
“Black Saturday”.