Following the devastating 2019-2020 bushfires in Australia, the endangered smoky mouse was feared to be extinct. The fires burned 13.6 million acres of land, and is estimated to have put over 100 threatened species at risk.
Before the bushfires, the smoky mouse was only found in small numbers in western, southern, and eastern Victoria; southeast New South Wales; and the Australian Capital Territory. So when over 90 percent of the mouse’s habitat was destroyed by the fires, researchers were afraid the species might be extinct.
