♪♪ ♪♪ -I'm on my way out to visit Dad on the family farm that we grew up in here in Swanfels in South East Queensland.

Growing up on a farm, animals for me have always been such a huge part of my life.

You see the kangaroos on the way to school.

As you're walking through the bush, you're seeing koalas up in the tree.

It wasn't just a form of entertainment for me.

It was learning more about myself within the world I had available to me.

♪♪ [Laughs] I cannot believe it.

The creek's actually flowing.

It's really mind-blowing just how green everything is when less than eight weeks ago, this place looked like a smoke-filled war zone.

I was on the balcony with Dad, and we were wondering whether the house would actually survive.

Unbelievable, hey?

-Finally happened.

-[Laughs] I know!

-How are ya?

-Good, Dad, how are you?

-Good.

-Far out.

-Yeah.

-How much rain have you had?

390 millimeters all up.

-In the last... -2 1/2 weeks or so.

-I can't even recognize it.

-No.

-What about the wallabies and wildlife?

-The wallabies are looking really good.

-Have you heard any koalas?

-I haven't heard any koalas, no.

-Okay.

-No.

-Where have you heard the koalas in the past?

-Down, just across the gully.

-Same thing for me.

After the fires, I heard them in through here... -Yeah.

-...squealing out.

-Yeah.

♪♪ -So immediately after the fires, it was walking through here, trying to find any sign of life, specifically koalas, because all of the other animals had the opportunity to escape.

You would see kangaroos running off.

You would see dingoes and wild horses.

Everything else was moving towards the creek.

But it was the days before the fires actually hit that I'd look up into the trees and I'd see koalas just squinting into the distance, looking at the smoke, and I remember feeling so helpless, looking at just how vulnerable they were up in the tree.

They had nowhere to go, and what made it worse was I had no idea what I could do to help.

So I was online, I was trying to research anything I could do.

That's how I first discovered Bear, the rescue dog who rescues koalas.

It was here that we first started searching with Bear.

Here that I discovered just how incredible he is, how much of a game-changer he's going to be.

And we've been on the road searching ever since.

♪♪ -Bear-Bear!

Hey!

Get the ball!

Okay!

Good boy!

-Bear's story began a few years ago when he was rescued and recruited to the Detection Dogs for Conservation Program run by the University of the Sunshine Coast.

-Hello!

-Hello.

-What have I interrupted here?

A little training session?

-Yeah, just messing around.

-He's got his own little bath here.

-Yes.

He loves water, so if there's a pond, there probably will be a Bear in it.

These are the clever women in Bear's life: Dr. Romane Cristescu, who helps train Bear, is a vet and a koala ecologist.

She studied to become a vet in France but came out here in her 20s to do a PhD and has never left.

Then there's Associate Professor Celine Frère, whose main interest is in animal behavior and genetics.

In 2017, Celine was named one of Australia's 30 most dynamic scientists.

You live with Bear, you do the training here with Bear.

This is home base.

-Yeah, yeah, we do most of the things in here and basically when we're at home with him, for him it's boring.

When we're able to go out and look for a koala, that's playtime, and he loves it.

-Celine and Romane started Detection Dogs in order to deliver important field research on the behavior and habitat of vulnerable species like koalas and quolls.

These animals are highly complex and enigmatic, and the more we know about them, the more we can preserve them in the future.

-We're absolutely passionate about protecting wildlife and we can't protect them unless we know where they are.

-It's the reason why we needed dog in the first place.

We would like to see koala very quickly and easily, but if that was the case, we probably wouldn't need a dog.

-Bear is a Koolie, a cross of Australian working dog breeds.

He's one of five rescue dogs in the program who live here.

All the dogs have similar skills.

They're all highly energetic herding dogs, with noses honed to find certain scents.

But Bear's energy is next level.

♪♪ -So, with all the dogs, we do a lot of research.

We want to understand koala, we want to understand where they live, you know, their genetics.

-Rescue dogs are chosen for more than just ethical reasons.

Many have the right obsessive disposition.

And like all the dogs on the Detection Dog program, Bear came from a home that didn't quite suit him.

-So, you never really know what happened to them, you know, in their past lives.

-What we do know is that he was absolutely impossible to keep because he was so bored that he started chewing everything.

He was a compulsive chewer.

He started chewing the internal walls of the flat that they were living in.

They had no choice.

Bear had to have a new life and the best life for Bear obviously was working.

-So they started training one-year-old Bear in 2016.

[ Bear barks, growls ] It took two years and it wasn't easy.

-His training was probably the most challenging training we've had to do.

His motivation is key and this is why, you know, Romane and I talking about his high energy, his high drive, and his compulsive behavior.

All we have to do is find out what makes him tick.

The ball, and then to get him to associate: this is the scent we want you to find, and this is the reward you'll get.

-Bear is rare in that he's trained to seek out live koalas from the scent of their fur.

Most other training involves koala scat, or droppings.

-So, all of our dogs are trained mainly on scats, and then obviously if they find a koala, that's great, but we are interested in koala scats for mapping koala habitat and also koala genetics, whereas him, he's trained to ignore the scats and go to the fur.

So wherever, you know, the koala sits in the tree will be where the strongest scent is and he's trained to, you know, track until he finds that strongest scent.

-Can you run me through the commands that you use with Bear?

-So the most important command, obviously, is the 'find' command.

So we say that when we want to find a koala.

Bear, come on.

Find, find.

And otherwise we've got, "Bear, sit!"

Good, sit.

Bear, drop.

And then we release then.

Okay!

But, you know, it's all about making it fun.

-Yep.

-So I can't just boss him around and not get him to play because that's boring.

-Koalas have become vulnerable over the last century due to increasing loss of habitat.

Bear's usual role is seeking out the sick and injured.

But since the fires, that role has taken on an urgency and scale that, even weeks later, hasn't abated.

-The fires were part of what we thought would be needed, but we never expected that it would be so intense.

♪♪ -Koalas have defined home ranges, so many of them might be living in, or be returning home, to areas with little or no food after the fires.

It's important to check these habitats to monitor the health of any surviving koalas.

♪♪ Concerned locals and animal charities tip off the team to get Bear where he's needed.

-Well, until he picks up an odor, he kind of zigzags.

-Right.

-And then when he picks up the koala, he follows that.

-Today, Romane and Bear are also joined by Josey, who works at IFAW, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, who sponsor Bear's work.

-He only gets rewarded once the humans have confirmed his indication.

-Right.

So he's got an incentive.

-I'm hoping there's nothing here for us to find because otherwise that animal will be in a very, very bad way.

-Does he get excited when he knows he's about to go?

-Yeah, he's excited all the time, though.

[ Laughter ] -Romane orientates Bear with the wind, so he can pick up the scent of fresh koala fur.

-Ready, Bear?

Go find.

-So now we play a little bit of follow the leader, hey?

-Exactly.

-His sense of smell is about 100,000 times more powerful than ours, so his whole environment is constructed by scent, in a similar way to how ours is constructed visually.

♪♪ Bear is tireless.

He will do this all day, every day.

-Bear-Bear!

-He just needs regular breaks for water.

He can put it away.

-Oh, sure, he's a big drinker.

-Doing good, Bear.

♪♪ To actually be here and surrounded by nothing but black, burnt-out trees.

It's completely lifeless.

There's no sign of green anywhere.

It really hits home just how devastating these fires were, and just how much wildlife has been affected.

-Since we haven't found a koala, I can show you at least the fresh scats.

So there is a koala surviving in this area.

-You can smell the eucalyptus in it.

It's strong, isn't it?

This probably looks a lot more disgusting than it actually is.

It's very crisp and yeah, it feels no different than picking up a little rock.

-[ Whistles ] Bear-Bear!

[ Whistles ] -We keep seeing him drop down at these trees.

-Go find!

-Are you going to be able to determine when he's actually found a koala?

Does he do something different?

-Well, he drops, but he sticks with it.

So all that indication means "I've got the scent.

Follow me if you want."

♪♪ -We've been searching now for half the day, and let me tell you, it's tough working at the speed of a dog.

It's 38 degrees Celsius and the air's still thick with the smell of smoke.

-You really be careful not to be on them, yeah?

You don't want to take a stone on your head.

-He's definitely got the scent.

-There's a bit more foliage around, so obviously better chance of survival for animals.

♪♪ -Looks like he's on to something.

-Is that it, Bear-Bear?

-What's that, up there, at the top?

He got it.

-Got it.

-Good boy!

-And you've got a little bum.

[ Laughs ] -Little fluffy koala bum.

-Got it?

-Yep.

-We never would have seen that.

-We would never have spotted it.

That's why Bear's our secret weapon.

-Good boy, Bear-Bear!

Good boy!

-Good job.

-Good spotting, by the way.

-Thank you.

Teamwork.

-You've done well.

-Now that we've found a koala, Romane will assess it for burns or diseases like chlamydia, which can show itself through urine discoloration on the koala's rump.

Is there a sense of urgency with this koala?

-There is because tonight she might move and disappear, and then she won't get treated, and that's really not a good prognostic, if she doesn't get to a vet now.

-One of their colleagues from the USC is called in to assist.

It's not sophisticated.

They simply wave a shiny flag above the koala to coax it down.

This rustic method is tried and tested, and if done quickly, won't cause too much stress.

-"Nice try," the koala says.

-But again, it's an exercise in patience and strength.

The more efficiently we can work, the better for the koala, which Romane thinks is a female, as it's quite small and males are usually larger.

Everything we do now is about minimizing stress to the koala.

♪♪ Air conditioning's better in the front.

So we're taking her to a vet as quickly as possible, to reduce the time she spends in the cage.

Given that koala populations can be up to 90% infected with chlamydia, her stained rump suggests it's likely she has this nasty disease, which can sometimes lead to sterility and even death.

-Where did you find her?

-We found her in a fire ground near Kandanga.

-Thank you very much for bringing her in.

Amy's just making sure that we've got good chest sounds, being that we've come from a fire-affected area.

-So, I'm just now having a look with the ultrasound at her urogenital tract.

Obviously, that's one of the main areas that chlamydia can affect, and that's obviously really important for female koalas because it can make them infertile.

-They just look so vulnerable and helpless like that, don't they?

-So definitely one side of her tract is no good.

Less clear changes on the other side, so hopefully if we give her treatment she might respond.

-And so if you get to it early enough, it's treatable?

-No, not always, unfortunately.

Koalas, also, treatment can be really problematic because they have a very sensitive and specialized gut, and so they've got a lot of specialized bacteria that live in there.

And so a lot of the antibiotics can have negative effects on them, when we try to treat the chlamydia.

And also it can cause quite a lot of inflammation and scarring, and it's really uncomfortable and it's really heartbreaking to see when they're weeing.

They cry and contract their tummy because they're straining, and it's really not a very pleasant thing for them.

-Little Evie.

-Evie.

[ Chuckles ] We can tell from the veterinary exam today that this infection is not new.

This could potentially have been the tipping point for her, and maybe we've got her just in time.

-It's the cutest thing in the world, but at the same time it's something that potentially could have been so much worse.

♪♪ We're on the road south to Ngunya Jargoon, one of the first Indigenous Protected Areas established in New South Wales.

It is the ancient and current home of the people of the Bundjalung Nation.

It's critical Bear finds any surviving koalas as the fires burnt through this habitat in late 2019, and malnourishment is likely.

Hello, hello.

-Oh, hello.

-Hey, Bear.

-Boots on.

-Kris from the Land Council and Maria from Friends of the Koala have called for Bear's help.

Good to see you, mate.

There were 30-odd koalas living here before the fires.

Looks like the fires hit pretty hard.

-Yes, it did.

The extent of this one, I've never seen it burn like this before.

-No.

But they haven't spotted any koala since, and they're worried there may be none left.

-Looks like Bear's ready to go.

-Well, let's do it.

-Let's go.

Good boy.

Bear, find.

-This doesn't look too rough, but it's scrubby and tangled underfoot.

-[ Whistles ] -I can see why Romane has to be diligent with Bear's boots.

-Let's go find.

Find-find.

♪♪ -Drinks liters a day, doesn't he?

-Yes, he does.

Alright, Bear, are you ready?

Let's go.

-He looks like he loves a break, but he loves to work even more.

-Yeah.

-See how excited he gets?

A couple of hours in and those of us on two legs are struggling to spot any koalas.

He's definitely on to a scent.

We've been circling around this one area and he keeps going straight back to the same spots.

Bear is going round and round.

He knows there's a koala nearby, but we can't spot it.

Definitely focusing here, isn't he?

-Bear, come on!

Find-find!

-I can't believe how tough this is.

The swamp, it's so thick, it's so humid.

Dripping sweat.

And there's mosquitoes everywhere.

Bear seems certain a koala is close, but I'm so worn out, I just seem to be staring into blank space.

♪♪ -Oh, there it is.

-You've got it?

-Is he on to it?

-Yeah!

-Where is it?

-Straight up there.

-Mate, how did you see that?

You've got good eyes.

-Oh, I wear glasses.

I don't know how.

-Oh, good boy!

-Could you imagine walking through here without Bear?

-Yeah, you wouldn't know.

-Good boy!

-Yeah, we're rewarding him a lot because he's done such a great search.

He searched very long and very hard, and he knew it was there, but we couldn't spot it.

So it was very frustrating for him, but he was like, "It's here, guys!"

So now he really deserves a big reward.

Good boy.

♪♪ -Maria knows this koala.

He's called Gahwang, or "Swampy" in English.

He looks a little undernourished and needs to be checked out.

So we're setting a trap for him.

-Does that go on there, Maria?

-Yeah, that's fine.

-Koalas go from tree to tree at night, so when they come down to move, you can catch them using basic fences like this one, which only have one exit, into a cage.

-It's my preferred method for least stress.

It's just natural for them to come down the tree.

-And in the wee small hours, captured on a motion-sensor camera, Gahwang eventually enters the trap.

♪♪ Amazing.

-We're lucky, eh?

-Very lucky.

Doesn't feel very heavy.

-No, it's very small.

Even if you can't see external signs of burns, there might still be infection in the lungs from smoke inhalation.

-Draping the koalas in eucalyptus comforts and feeds them during transportation.

We'll be taking him to the renowned Currumbin Wildlife Hospital, just over the border in Queensland.

Currumbin Hospital is like koala care central.

It's the busiest wildlife hospital in Australia.

-Oh, hi, who have we got here?

-Of the 140 people that work here, only 20 are paid.

The rest are dedicated volunteers.

What a blessing.

The hospital treated 12,000 injured animals in 2019, and since the fires, there's been a 20% lift in patients coming in, like Gahwang.

What's his body score feel like?

-Oh, pretty average.

Maybe a three or four out of ten.

Hopefully it's just a case of lack of food, and that it's something we can build him up again and get him back out when the conditions are much better.

-But since Gahwang came from a fire zone, his lungs will need to be checked for smoke damage.

-I'll get the vet to have a look at him and give him a full work-up.

-Fantastic.

While we're here, we can check out some of the other recovering patients.

♪♪ He is just so cute.

♪♪ This is Ember, who's come through no less than 25 operations in the last two months, and is considered the local superstar.

-She's only a youngster, only about a year and a half old, and awful burns.

The deepest burns of all the animals that we've had come in through the doors.

-She's in the safe hands of Michael Pyne, who has worked here at Currumbin for 20 years.

-And she's such a little trouper and she's done so well.

She came in from northern New South Wales, about 10 weeks ago and yeah, she's gone through checkup after checkup, bandage change after bandage change, and she just keeps, you know, motoring on.

And really nasty smoke inhalation.

You know, the breathing, she was struggling.

And on top of all that, when we tested her for chlamydia, she came back a positive.

She had the whole lot together and she was a real challenge to I guess get on top of it all and really get her to that point that she was starting to recover.

It's been a good two, three weeks since I've seen her, and the last time I saw her, these ulcers were around this side.

-Wow.

-You could actually see right down to the ligaments and it was an absolute mess.

-Everyone has well and truly fallen in love with her.

-Normally we recover them in a cage, but because she's so easily -- easy to handle, we just give her an extra squeeze before we put her out in the tree.

So 5, 10 minutes, it just depends on how she is.

-I think it's just an excuse for Renee to give her a bit of a cuddle, so... -Yeah.

-[ Chuckles ] -It's a hectic pace here, with a lot of little furry and feathery bodies being moved around from reception, to X-ray, to surgery, and recovery.

The complexity of dealing with so many different species, with so many different needs, is actually quite mind-boggling.

You must enjoy your job.

-I do.

I'm very lucky.

-Do you develop a bond with certain koalas?

-Certainly.

They're hard not to like, aren't they?

-Yeah.

-They're cute little fellas and they all do have their own little personalities.

-Really?

-So you definitely strike a bond with some of them, that's for sure.

-Outside, there's a large recovery zone where Khan, a young male, is on the mend after being found injured by the side of the road two months ago, probably hit by a car.

-You can see the wound that he had, that's recovering here and doing nicely.

And he did have chlamydia, which we've treated, and the hope is it's negative and he can go on his way.

-The chlamydia had given him a nasty case of conjunctivitis, but he's doing well now.

Meanwhile, a call has come in from IFAW, requesting Bear's help at a koala sanctuary in the Snowy Mountains.

So we're driving 1,200 kilometers south to an area near the town of Cooma.

We'll be meeting James Fitzgerald, whose home and koala sanctuary in the Good Good Valley were destroyed by a fire a fortnight ago.

It's a big trip for Bear, but fortunately, he travels well, and his amazing nose will be critical in the search for surviving koalas.

♪♪ Looking around, the fires have absolutely devastated everything here.

♪♪ How're you doing, James?

-Not too bad.

Good to meet you.

-Yeah, nice to meet you, mate.

This is all that remains of the Two Thumbs Refuge, Rehab and Research Facility.

It's, um, I tell you what, devastating.

I can't even tell what I'm looking at.

-Yeah, it's not -- not what I'm used to.

[ Chuckles ] -Two Thumbs was set up by James in 2013.

The buildings were part of an 1,800-acre reserve dedicated to wildlife, so it was filled with native animals, some in specially tended enclosures.

On the 23rd of January, Two Thumbs was being defended from a renewed fire front by a C-130 air tanker when tragedy struck.

-Yeah, Fire coms, it's just a ball of flames, over.

-Sadly, the three American firefighters were killed.

-The last thing those good guys did was drop a line of fire retardant up here to try and stop the bushfire, and then... You just wish you could turn the clock back and say, "Go home to your families," you know?

Like... -On the same terrible day, James was out rescuing a koala when the winds changed without warning, sending a ferocious fire front through Two Thumbs.

-When I came in here, it was -- Well, you can sort of see what I could see.

It was all collapsed but it was also on fire and the hard part for me was that, you know, I'd had my animals evacuated since the 30th of December, but I'd just recently brought them back.

About one and a half Ks that way, I've got a koala enclosure that I had a koala in, so I just bolted there.

I remember driving across trees and stuff that were down across the tracks and I just hoped upon hope, you know, that she would be okay, because she was a dear little thing, and I'd named her after the Swedish environmental activist, Greta.

And unfortunately, she was gone too.

So that -- that day was not a good day.

And then, you know, the fact that over there there's an airplane and three good people lost their life, sort of just...

But yeah, I still wake up, you know, with just tears in your eyes 'cause you do.

You want those people to have gone home.

♪♪ -James has literally been living in a swag in the bush since the fires two weeks ago.

But he won't leave the area when he knows koalas are still out in the burnt forest, in need of help.

-I want some good to come out of this tragedy, you know?

-Yeah.

-We need some.

That's why we're just trying to find any possible survivors.

-Yeah, well, if there's one thing I've noticed about Bear, he's definitely good at that.

♪♪ -Bear does not like his booties.

But we like Bear to have his booties because you never know what's on the ground.

♪♪ Go find!

♪♪ ♪♪ Go find!

♪♪ ♪♪ -This land would have been beautiful before, hey.

-In a way, it's better to not have seen it before, isn't it?

It's too heartbreaking otherwise.

-Parts of New South Wales had no rain at all for three years, so the quality of leaf was already quite low, meaning many koalas were undernourished well before the fires came through.

-There's a bit of a green canopy up there, so I might just check because kind of focusing where you have the highest likelihood of finding a survivor.

Bear-Bear!

[ Whistles ] -Ah, his little boot.

His boot came off.

-Oh, good spotting, thank you.

I lost one before.

-Come over here, Bear.

Is he gonna stay?

Good boy.

-See how he collaborates for you?

-Good boy!

Oh, I'm getting a little lick.

-Well, that's affection.

Unless you just ate something.

-I did.

Good boy.

♪♪ Alright, mate, all good.

-Good boy.

-Double bows.

Good boy.

Can I give him the call?

Bear, find-find!

-[ Laughs ] -Such an amazing dog.

-Bear, find!

Find, find, find, Bear-Bear!

Find, find, find, Bear-Bear!

Bear-Bear!

[ Whistles ] ♪♪ -Checking for any -- Like, sometimes you find pellets... -Yep.

-...around the place.

Oh, there's one there, look.

[ Chuckles ] And that looks quite fresh.

Well, Bear seems to be heading in the right direction.

♪♪ ♪♪ -Good boy!

Yep, he's indicating.

Good boy, Bear-Bear!

Go find!

♪♪ Find-find.

Find-find.

Yes!

Good boy!

-He found one?

-There it is!

Can you see it, James?

There's a mum and a bub.

-Is there?

-You can see the baby.

-Yep.

Good boy!

Yes, good boy, Bear-Bear!

You got a koala!

Well done!

Well done!

Good boy.

Good boy.

Good boy!

-Yeah, I can see the second one now.

-It's a good way to end the day for Bear-Bear.

Good boy!

-Alright.

Well, we don't have a lot of daylight, so... -What are you thinking, trap?

-We don't have any flagpole that high.

♪♪ At some point tonight, mum and bub koala will climb down to go to their next favorite tree.

We've got a little trap here, so I put the trap in the little doorway and when the koala steps on the plate, the door shuts behind them.

This is a really nice low-stress way of catching them.

The habitat's pretty trashed.

Look at all the leaf in the trees.

It's all brown.

There's very few trees with green on them.

There's no food.

-There's a mum trying to look after her baby up there.

-That's right.

It sort of makes it doubly important that when we find these mums with bubs, we help them.

Crucial for today and crucial for the future of the population, I guess.

♪♪ -During the night, the koalas come down together.

As you can see, the joey enters the trap.

But the distressed mum is left outside, trying to get to her baby all night.

♪♪ After a wet night, Mum's still reluctant to leave her joey.

♪♪ How's she looking?

-Well, with the rain that we've had this morning, she's a little bit wet.

-Just the fact that it's in here by itself, that generally means that it's nearly at the stage where it's leaving its mum, doesn't it?

-As we saw yesterday in the tree, they weren't together.

They were in different branches.

So it's starting to become a little bit independent.

But Mum knows the bush better.

It's still sort of hanging with her.

You know, that's part of learning the environment, where are the favorite trees.

I guess, particularly in this burnt-out environment, hanging with Mum's part of that survival strategy.

-It's a huge relief for James capturing the joey, but Mum is still up in the tree, so we reset the trap before we go.

Hopefully we'll catch her tonight.

Meanwhile, we're taking the joey to Canberra where the Australian National University has set up a koala crisis center.

When we arrive at ANU, the lighting has been dimmed to make it feel like nighttime for the koalas.

-Just back away and give it time to work out where it is.

-Those are some pretty impressive ears.

-How so?

-Beautiful and fluffy.

[ Laughs ] ♪♪ [ Leaves crunching ] -It's music to a koala carer's ear.

The little crunching sound.

-Always nice, as James said, to see them eating because it means you know you've picked the right leaf for them.

[ Thunder crashes ] -After another wet night, we're hoping to find Mum in the cage.

-That looks like the trapdoor's closed.

I think we're going to have some success here, which is really great news.

-The poor wet mum is clearly unhappy.

But in a life-or-death situation like this, we need to pull her out of the forest as quickly as we can.

-Come on, matey.

I'm sorry.

Come on, come on, go, go, go.

Slowly.

Put it down.

Yep.

There we go.

Yep, she's in.

We won't worry about taking any of the equipment.

We'll come back.

Priority is to get her to the vet.

She looks quite thin.

[ Koala whimpers ] -Back at ANU, the vet joins us to inspect both Mum, now called Jessie, and her joey who we've named Amelia.

Jessie is the first to be sedated.

-What we're feeling there at the moment is basically no muscle, so she's very, very thin.

-Their body condition is scored from one to five.

-She's barely half, maybe zero, which is emaciated, essentially.

-You're kidding.

-Yeah.

The main thing will be if she can, in care, eat.

-Yep.

-If she eats, she's a chance of getting through it all.

-If she was left out in the wild, how long do you think she could have survived like this for?

-Not very much longer.

-Days.

-Yeah.

♪♪ -Amelia spent the night eating leaves.

She's also thin, but better than Mum.

-Masking her to sleep with some anesthetic gas.

Judging them based on her body condition score as well, obviously variable.

She's still not fat by any means.

Better than none.

She probably still is only a one of five, do you think?

What do you think?

-Oh, yeah, she is still thin.

-Yeah.

Alright, she is now checked.

-Jessie and Amelia.

-That's it.

-It's a big moment.

Jessie and Amelia are about to be reunited.

But it's still a little tense.

If Jessie doesn't recognize the joey, she could lash out.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ They recognized each other?

-Yeah, I mean if that wasn't her joey, she would have swiped it.

Told it to get lost.

-Jessie the mum still has a long way to go, doesn't she?

-Jessie's prognosis is guarded, whereas Amelia, the bub, she'll be 100% fine.

It's the mum we're worried about.

The mum will get some gum-leaf milkshakes where we blend up the gum leaf, add the Wombaroo koala milk.

But yeah, she's quite thin so we've really got to keep a close eye on her.

-And now these two are in safe hands, I'll leave James, Bear and Romane to search for more koalas at Two Thumbs, while I head back north to check on our other koalas.

♪♪ Gahwang's doing well.

Turns out he's only suffering from smoke inhalation, dehydration, and is a little underweight.

So a stint in rehab, a vaccination against chlamydia, and a lot of good eating is all he needs.

-His gut feels fantastic, so he's been eating well.

-Meanwhile, Kahn is getting tested to see if he's chlamydia-free.

-Khan's looking great.

He's in a really good body condition.

We can see a little patch there.

We know that he was shaved before and that's growing back through now.

And so fingers crossed today we do this test and he gets released, you know, which is our goal at all times.

-While we wait for the results, I get a call from Amy, the vet who's been caring for Eve.

-Eve wasn't doing very well in care.

She didn't cope with the antibiotics that we were giving her.

So we thought that it was kindest for her, from an animal welfare perspective, to euthanize her, unfortunately.

-Oh, no.

-I'm sorry we couldn't fix Eve.

♪♪ -I feel your pain.

You know, we see almost 600 koalas here and look, sadly, almost half of them don't survive.

-At least Eve wasn't left to suffer a slow death in the wild, and here's hoping Khan's treatment has been successful, with a negative result.

-If we've got a positive, we've got a number in this line here.

And so we've got no number beside Khan here.

So it's all looking great and Khan's negative.

We've got no more chlamydia, so happy days.

The goal now is to release him as soon as we can and get him back out there.

That's what's it's all about.

♪♪ -A little over an hour south in Lismore is an important rehab facility called Friends of the Koala, where wildlife is taken both before hospital stints as a triage clinic and also after hospital, as a recovery venue to ensure the animals are fit enough for release.

Is she playing with you?

-Yes.

-Is that what she's doing?

-Yeah.

She generally does it all night.

-Places like this free up space needed at the larger hospitals.

Ember, the little champion we met at Currumbin, is now in residence here, being cared for by Marley, an IFAW-sponsored vet nurse and passionate koala carer.

She looks incredible.

-Yeah, I remember the first time we picked her up and just looked at her and thought, "Oh, my God, she's not going to make it, is she," you know?

But she looks like a totally different koala.

-She's been to hell and back.

-She's come a long way.

-So how far is she from being released?

-I'd say about a week or two.

-She'll be released close to where she was found?

-Yeah, as long as there's habitat there, because you've got to remember there was quite a lot of fires there for a long period of time.

So we're going to have to go out and we'll find somewhere that's really good for her to thrive.

I'm really pleased.

♪♪ -The issue of habitat is a complicated one for koalas, given their homes have been eroded over a century or more of farming and urban expansion.

And since the fires, you sort of wonder what the future holds.

Celine is meeting me at a corridor that was untouched by fires on the Sunshine Coast, a sort of koala utopia.

This is just so green and so alive.

-Yes.

-I'm guessing this is what a koala habitat is supposed to look like.

-Well, you know, it's luxury, obviously but yes, definitely.

And we've had a lot of water in the last two weeks.

Lots of us researchers are trying to find what do koalas like?

-Yeah.

-What trees do they like?

What leaf do they like?

What is the leaf chemistry that a koala prefers?

So we're all trying heavily to find out the answer to those questions in the hope that we can create better environments for them.

-They have adapted localized taste and gut bacteria, so you can't just move them into different areas as they may not eat the local eucalypts.

-The question that everybody wants to know is how many koalas do we have left.

-Right.

-And I can guarantee that nobody knows the answer.

Everyone tries to tell you what they think is the number, but we actually have no number.

-The Detection Dogs are key to our understanding, as are new technologies.

-So we're trying different methodologies, but one of our, you know, favorite projects at the moment is trying to use Bluetooth technology as a little ear tag.

-Okay.

-You know, because when you think about urban koalas, there's hundreds of thousands of people living around that environment, and all of them carry what?

An iPhone or an Android phone, right?

So you get all of these receivers, and then you end up with this army of warriors on the ground, looking after their wildlife.

And, you know, the power really needs to be handed back to the community.

-And Dr. Pyne is working with a high-tech drone company who use calibrated thermal cameras to detect the body heat of koalas.

It works particularly well at night, when the ground is cold and the images stand out more.

-Yeah, that's clearly hot spots and they could potentially be koalas.

-Yep.

-We did a deployment with WIRES two weeks ago, and what it was taking us 10 minutes to clear was taking them five hours.

So from an efficiency perspective, it's huge.

To give the likes of Mick the ability to go out into the field, find the koalas, potentially test them for chlamydia, vaccinate them against chlamydia if needed, and then release them back on-site straightaway, unless they have to come into the hospital for more treatment.

-It's so exciting to see technology, you know, make a difference.

We're saving our wildlife.

-And it's not just technology working quickly to find koalas.

Back at Two Thumbs, Bear has been on a roll, and over five days, has found no less than 15 koalas.

-Good boy!

Good boy.

Good boy, Bear-Bear!

Is that it, Bear?

Good boy!

-The window for these lucky ones is short.

Their luck is running out and Bear is helping us find them.

-Good boy!

-It's been three weeks since I've seen Jessie and Amelia.

They've made it through the hardest part of their recovery, which was overcoming their sever malnutrition and regaining their strength.

They look completely different.

-Bright-eyed, full of life.

-Yes, so much better than they were when they came in.

-Different koalas.

Their little part of the world in the Good Good Valley is gone, and there will be no sustainable habitat there for the foreseeable future.

But at least they're doing well.

How much weight have they put on?

-Jessie went from 5.7 kilos up to 6.35, and Amelia's gone from 2.9 to 3.3 kilos.

So they've both put on quite a lot of weight.

-That's a huge amount.

-And we do have some other good news when the vet was here.

So he ultrasounded all the koalas so that we could look at how their reproductive tracts weren't damaged with chlamydia, and with Jessie, we found she was pregnant.

-She's -- She's pregnant?

-Yes!

-How?

I mean, not how, but... -Yes, it's a really amazing thing because with koalas, they're only pregnant for 34 days.

So initially you'd only get a couple of cells, so it's not something you're going to pick up in an ultrasound, and with this ultrasound, you can actually see the heart beating.

So it's got to be very close to actually crawling out of the cloaca, climbing up the fur and getting into the pouch.

-Yeah.

-I'm still trying to wrap my head around this.

When we collected her, she must -- it must have been days before that.

-Yeah, she must have mated just a couple of days before we rescued her.

-Yeah.

-She wouldn't be alive, and nor would this new joey be alive, without being rescued and brought into care.

It's almost the good news story that keeps giving.

-I'm really happy for James.

When we first met him, his world was in tatters.

But he's already rebuilding Two Thumbs.

Not starting with his own house, no.

He's starting with enclosures that Jessie and Amelia could move into when the time is right.

-We have to assess their fitness in terms of physical fitness and strength to be released.

So they'll go into much bigger enclosures which encourage them to climb and test their abilities.

So there's the medical side of the assessment -- they need the green tick -- and then they need a sort of physical, in terms of you know, they've been through the koala gym and they're strong enough to be released.

-And the good news stories continue.

Gahwang and Khan are ready to go home.

Both are being released within 5 kilometers of where they were found.

I can't believe you've got water here.

Gahwang is going back to Wardell.

It's hard to believe this is the same spot Bear found him just a few weeks ago.

-You ready, Gahwang?

Did I pick a good one?

-Oh, look at him go.

-It's always good to get them back in the wild after what they've been through, but you always worry about them.

-As for Khan, he's heading back to an area near Bangalow, now lush and green.

Landowner Glenn and Solé, from Friends of the Koala, are here for the send-off.

And this is a little corridor that you guys have saved, is it?

-It is, it is.

It's one that's been here, established for some time, and that's the future corridor, a little koala highway.

[ Koala grunting ] -He's calling out.

-Is he?

-Yeah.

He's grunting.

-He's ready.

-He's ready.

[ Laughs ] -Alright, well, I'm going to sit back and watch you guys do your thing.

Let's do this.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -If one good thing has come out of the fires, it's been a renewal in affection for these little Aussie treasures.

We need animals like koalas, and future generations need them too.

-We want to understand koalas.

We want to understand where they live, you know, their genetics, all those things so we can preserve them.

-♪ Sun casts a shadow across your face ♪ -Because one thing, when you protect koala habitat, you protect the habitat for many other animals.

-♪ Hides scars and tears and heartbreak ♪ -Our mission in life is to try and understand what animals do, what they can and cannot do, how can they cope in the context of natural disasters and environmental change.

-♪ Are you the hero I need today?

♪ -By putting more detection dogs in the field, like our tireless superhero Bear, our koala knowledge will improve.

Our conservation will improve, and words like "extinction" won't be needed when we're talking about koalas.

-♪ Take me home ♪ ♪ Take me home ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪ Through the darkness I can see a light ♪ ♪ Coming closer, it keeps me alive ♪ ♪ So tell me you're on your way ♪ ♪ Oh, oh ♪ ♪ For a thousand footsteps to my door ♪ ♪ Between you and I, the fire roars ♪ ♪ But you've never been afraid ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪