Chris Dickman, a professor of ecology at the University of Sydney, revised his estimate of 480 million animals affected by the fires, saying on Wednesday that more than 800 million animals have likely been killed in the Australian state of New South Wales alone.

A study by the University of Sydney has found that Labradors of certain colours have shorter life expectancies, and also suffer from more health problems. Breeders targeting this colour may therefore be more likely to breed only Labradors carrying the chocolate coat gene.