“It often feels really frustrating that we’re battling our hearts out on the front line of climate change, habitat loss and urbanisation – it’s real, we’re seeing it – and yet there appears to be a lot more apathy or lack of awareness, more broadly, from both governments and others,” she said.

“I dread to think what the call volume is going to be like in 10 years’ time.”

One of the more common sights on hot days were grey-headed flying foxes dropping dead from trees, Palma said.

“They’ve got a physiological limit of 42 degrees – and I have had to stand there and watch while they dropped dead from trees in piles of dead bodies, and go through the piles of dead bodies to try and find any we could save … that’s a species that is now a threatened species, deeply important to the health of our eucalypt forests, and they’re not coping with the rising temperatures.”

As the bushfire season begins in earnest, including a fire that remains out of control in Victoria’s  Grampians region, wildlife rescuers and carers are bracing for a rapid increase in calls for help.

Byron Bay Wildlife Hospital’s admissions rose from 1339 animals in 2021 to 2915 in 2024, as of Thursday last week.

“We are struggling,” said Wildlife Recovery Australia veterinary services general manager Dr Bree Talbot.

“It’s physically and emotionally draining work to witness animal suffering each day.

“We’ve seen almost 3000 patients in 2024, including many species threatened with extinction. We’ve treated almost 8500 animals since we opened. The numbers keep growing each year.”

Wildlife Victoria experienced its busiest-ever month in October, with 21,644 calls for help coming in. The next month, another record was set when 1032 calls were placed in a single day on November 11 – almost one every minute.

Australia watched, shocked, when an estimated 3 billion animals were killed or displaced during the Black Summer bushfires of 2019-20. Many of those who couldn’t offer rescue or carer services donated money to help the cause.

But donations have slowed to a trickle, as the cost of living bites.

“It’s unsustainable that governments continue to rely on wildlife hospitals like ours to treat the native animals under their legal protection, with no recompense,” Henry said.

“Our seven days-a-week wildlife hospital treats thousands of animals every year, and costs about $1.5 million a year to run. If you had six, seven or eight of those across the state, you’re talking $10 to $15 million a year to provide first-class veterinary care for the state’s wildlife.

“Recurrent government funding would reduce the mental and physical stress on our people by allowing us to train more people to share the load.”

Wildlife Victoria’s operating costs were $7 million this year, with just $500,000 provided by the state government.

“I have no commitment of any funding after this year, so I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Palma said.

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The Paris Agreement seeks to limit global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, beyond which catastrophic impacts on “people, planet and economies” are likely, according to the 2024 UN Emissions Gap report.

Last month, the CSIRO and weather bureau released updated climate data showing Australia’s average temperatures have risen by 1.5 degrees since records began.

The average temperatures continue to rise steadily, while the average number of extreme bushfire days has risen by as many as 25 days a year in parts of the country.