‘I sort of fell apart’: black summer bushfires’ toll on the vets and carers helping Australian wildlife

Dr Kimberly Vignette Herrin, a veterinarian officer at Sydney’s Taronga zoo, found treating hundreds of animals injured and dying from the black summer bushfires exhausting and emotional. ‘I don’t think I have actually dealt with the impact.’ Photograph: Bec Lorrimer/The Guardian

The day before the fire front hit, the forest fell deadly silent. Normally, says wildlife carer Susie Pulis, “if you are driving or walking in the bush it’s nothing but chitter chatter. There’s lots and lots of noise, all the different bird life and insects and everything buzzing around.” But this was different. “The birds had gone.”

Pulis and her son were scouting for animals before the fires hit. “We could see the fire in the distance, we could see the flames.