'Brutal business': bushfire devastation causes 'collective grief' among wildlife carers

Calls grow for mental health support for volunteers as images of animals killed in fires cause widespread distress

The bushfire crisis has caused a "collective grief" among wildlife carers, who say the "scent of death [is] in every breath" in fire-affected areas.

The scale of the devastation - with more than a billion animals estimated to have died - has prompted renewed calls from some wildlife experts for mental health support for wildlife carers, almost a third of whom already experience "moderate to severe grief" as part of the ordinary course of their work.