Severe bushfires in Australia. Not only are the trees affected, but many animals have also died.

These bushfires in Australia are currently being captioned with various photos on social media. A number of photos show dead animals, but many of these photos cannot be attributed to the current fires.

It is a series of over 20 images, the most famous image in this series shows a burning tiger with its face turned towards the camera.

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Important at this point: This article is not about relativizing or downplaying the fires in Australia in any way. It's all about fact-checking whether the images from the photo series can really be attributed to the current fires. You can read about the pictures:

Huge wildfire in Australia has resulted in deaths of more than 480 million animals.Hundred of rare koalas are also reported dead among them.

Let's pray for Australia?
Source:University of Sydney report #wildfire

The photo series usually appears in the news stream on Facebook, the location itself is HERE :

Australia bushfire fact check
Screenshot: Australia bushfire fact check

The basic rule for photos is that you can always use an image search to see whether a photo has already been published elsewhere on the Internet and in what context this image appeared there. If an image has already appeared in an older context, then one can assume that it does not belong to the more recent context.

In the following fact check, we will refer to the photos from the status report above .

Fact check photos Australia & bushfires

It is precisely this image search that is now the basis for the photos that are currently being attributed to the fires in Australia. So let's start with the most famous photo from the series.

The Burning Tiger

The picture of the burning tiger appeared in the Daily Mail on November 15, 2012. The picture was there in the context of stuffed animals in Indonesia ( see here ).

In principle, of course, the Daily Mail as a source should also be treated with a certain degree of caution, but this applies less to this extent, as the only thing that matters is that this photo is already older than January 2020 or December 2019. This fact has been sufficiently proven by its publication in November 2012. The photo cannot be assigned to the current fires in Australia.

The Burning Horse

The photo with the burning horse also appeared in the Daily Mail, and this article is also older. It was published in October 2019 and shows photos from California ( see here ).

The deer in the smoking forest

The deer in the smoking forest appeared on Dailysabah and was in the context of the wildfires in California. Pictures of other small animals, like this cat, are also from November 2018 (see here and here ). So not Australia 2020 either.

The deer

Things get particularly interesting with a deer that can be seen in front of a supposedly burning backdrop. There shouldn't be a fire in this photo, but rather a sunset. The image itself can be found as a so-called wallpaper on the internet ( here ). Another motif with a deer is more of a fictional motif than can be attributed to Australia ( compare ).

An emu

The emu appearing in the images was already published in 2016 ( see here ). Here too, the context given is fire in California, not a word about Australia. The same applies to a rabbit, whose picture was already published on August 1st, 2018 ( compare here ).

The koala

The photo with a koala is probably at least 10 years old; it appeared in a video on YouTube in 2009 ( here ). At least the picture comes from Australia.

Australia bushfire fact check
Australia bushfire fact check

Another photo of a koala from the series comes from Australia, but from 2009 ( view here ).

Another image was published on November 16, 2019. According to its own information, it shows an animal at Assie Ark, which is about 350 km from Sydney to the north ( see here ).

The cow

There are other photos from the series that definitely cannot be assigned to the current fires in Australia: This cow ( HERE ) ran past flames from the Rim Fire in Yosemite National Park in 2013.

Burnt sheep

A photo of burned sheep can already be found in a web article from 2013 ( here ), another photo of dead animals was in this web article in .

Another koala

Another picture with a koala comes from Australia, but was published in September 2019 and can be found several times online ( here or here )

The horse

A dead horse can be found in news articles from 2009. Although these images come from Australia, they are over 10 years old (see here and here ).

The kangaroo and the cow

compare ) and this deceased cow ( see here ) are also over 10 years old

Another kangaroo

Another picture of a deceased kangaroo can be found in an article from 2013. The context is Australia, but the time reference is incorrect ( compare ).

These photos might be suitable

Some images could certainly fit into the current context. One photo shows a deceased kangaroo ( see here ), the other picture shows a cow, which can also be attributed to the current context ( compare ).

It is also very likely that the picture of a burnt cow is one of the current fires. It is most likely from Australia in Ebor (550 km N of Sydney) in 2019 ( compare ).

This koala ( HERE ) is also likely to be associated with the current fires in Australia. Most likely from September 2019 from Australia. The picture won't appear until September. The article states:

“Another koala was rescued on Saturday from the Gold Coast hinterland and was taken in by Wildcare Australia Inc.”

A photo of another deceased kangaroo is also very similar. Most likely from September 2019 from Rappville in northern New South Wales Australia. There are also only 2 search results, both from abc.net.au ( see here ).

Conclusion on Australia & bushfires:

Be careful with this series of pictures! Although this series of photos is very symbolic, the vast majority of the images do not belong in the current context. Some pictures don't come from Australia, and a few don't even have any connection to a fire.

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We have observed a very similar phenomenon to the fires in the Amazon. Here, too, out-of-context images were used to visually underline a fundamentally dramatic situation. Our article about it HERE .

Image research: André Reinsdorf

 


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )