For almost three weeks, an increasingly large part of Australia has been ravaged by devastating wildfires that show little hope of dying down.
As the BBC reported, the fires have resulted in 24 deaths and seen the destruction of over 15.6 million acres of land.
The impact on the continent's unique wildlife has also proved catastrophic, as nearly half a billion animals are likely to have died since the blazes began.
As there's no telling how long these fires could continue, the outlook seems almost entirely grim. It is for this reason that we might turn to smaller stories of hope that show the resilience of human spirits in even the most seemingly hopeless of situations.
But one such story proves that we shouldn't count animals out of that resilience either.