The Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium in Omaha is helping with Australian fire relief efforts. Zoo officials have announced a five-thousand-dollar donation that will be sent to Zoos Victoria and the New South Wales Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service.
As of the start of 2020, more than a billion animals had died in the Australian bush fire, and over 12-million acres have burned.
"From the tiniest creatures that nobody knows exist that may even be in a hole surviving..when it comes out there's no food, there's no habitat left," says Christie Eddie, curator of small mammals at the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium.
The devastation has pushed the Omaha Zoo to make a $5,000 donation to be split between Zoos Victoria and New South Wales Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service Inc.
"It's everything from wallabies, to echidnas, the birds, and reptiles, the amphibians, everything is as impacted just as much as the koala," Eddie tells Six News.
She is asking zoo patrons to help them for support. "You can't give up. If we give up then all of this goes away and no one ever sees it again. So we can't give up. We have to keep moving forward," Eddie says.
Eddie tells Six News, the zoo is focused on immediate needs, but their help won't end there. Eddie says recovery for Australia is years in the making.
"Right now in a lot of those places no one even know's what's the true story because it isn't even safe to get in there. Once they get into that phase, phase two, they do the assessment and they evaluate the habitats and what animals they can't find and then they have to decide what to do from there," Eddie says.