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An echidna in NSW
Ground-dwelling animals including echidnas have drowned in their burrows amid the NSW floods. Photograph: Lisa Mckelvie/Getty Images
Ground-dwelling animals including echidnas have drowned in their burrows amid the NSW floods. Photograph: Lisa Mckelvie/Getty Images

NSW floods: fears for echidnas and wombats trapped underground

This article is more than 3 years old

Days of sustained rain has led to concerns for ground-dwelling animals, such as wombats and echidnas, which can become trapped in their habitat by flood waters.

Coastal swells have also caused marine species to be swept off course, with baby sea turtles found washed ashore in places including Sydney’s Bronte beach.

Sustained rain and floods can be devastating for wildlife but the extent to which the disaster in New South Wales has affected native species won’t become clear until the weather eases and water begins to recede.

Wildlife carers and environment groups who spoke to Guardian Australia said they had taken calls about kangaroos stuck in drainpipes, animals hit by cars after leaving for higher ground, and turtles and seabirds swept far from their usual habitat.

Evan Quartermain is the Australian head of programs and disaster response for the Humane Society International. He said the effect of floods on native animals was varied but “almost always severe” and wildlife would need support for months to come.

“There are the clearly devastating problems for burrowing and ground-dwelling animals like wombats and echidnas that can quickly become trapped by flood waters,” he said. “And aquatic animals such as platypus and turtles face major run-off issues and can easily be swept far from their territories.

“The wild weather also creates havoc for birds that will struggle for shelter and have nests blown from trees, and there may be significant long-term food impacts on wildlife like flying foxes which rely on fruits and flowers that are being washed away.”

Wildlife carers have been taking calls for injured wildlife and that is expected to increase as the weather begins to clear from Wednesday.

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Is NSW flooding yet more evidence of climate change?

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Experts say it’s unusual to see so many places with such high rainfall across such a wide area. 

The extreme rainfall came after three weather systems combined, and fell on already saturated ground due to a wetter-than-average summer, thanks in part to the La Nina weather pattern. 

A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture - about 7% for each degree of warming - so there's more available to fall as rain. If you do the maths, Australia has warmed by 1.4C, accounting for roughly 5-10% of the rain. 

But climate scientists say it's not that simple because of the many different factors that influence rainfall. Climate change could also be making weather patterns that deliver downpours more frequent, but again, more research is needed.

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Nat Blatchford is a member of Wildlife in Need of Care, an animal rescue service that covers Port Stephens, Dungog and the Great Lakes region of NSW.

“We’ve lost a lot of animals this weekend,” she said, including kangaroos that had drowned, wombats caught in their burrows, and birds that had become waterlogged and sick.

“It’s been raining since Thursday non-stop,” she said. “We’ve had exhausted kangaroos coming up and sitting at back doors. We’ve had birds going into homes.

“We’ve had a grey noddy [a seabird] that was blown off course that ended up in Fern Bay. They’re not usually found south of Lord Howe Island.”

In Sydney on Tuesday, carers from the wildlife rescue service Wires collected a turtle hatchling found at Bronte beach after it was washed ashore. The animal is now in the care of Australian Seabird Rescue.

John Grant, spokesperson for Wires, said it was hatchling season and the coastal swells could push the youngsters off course.

Turtles that ended up on beaches this week could be injured or exhausted and if spotted should not be returned to the surf, he said. Instead, he encouraged people to call an animal rescue service.

He said Wires had not taken a large volume of calls yet but he expected that to change.

“Our native animals are used to extreme weather events, they will get out of a flood situation as quickly as they can, it just depends on how fast the water approaches,” he said.

“As the weather fines up, which is supposed to be tomorrow, people will be leaving their homes and that’s when we expect we’ll start receiving calls about animals being stuck in unusual places.”

In the southern highlands south-west of Sydney, John Creighton of Wombat Care Bundanoon has spent the past three days checking about 300 wombat burrows.

“More than half of them were flooded,” he said. “We pumped out a few that we knew a mum and a joey were in.”

He said the animals would also move on to properties and dig new burrows in an effort to stay dry.

Meredith Ryan, the president of Fawna NSW, a wildlife rescue service on the mid-north coast, said “animals, like people are hunkering down”.

She said the service had cared for waterlogged birds and a bandicoot, and a hypothermic wattlebird.

She drove a young green turtle that was found washed up at Laurieton to a marine rescue service in Coffs Harbour.

“It will be clearer when the waters start to recede,” she said. “Things that have managed to survive will be there.”

Carers said anyone who found wildlife in coming days should call a rescue service, many of which have volunteers available 24 hours a day.

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