A heart-breaking photo of an exhausted koala appearing to grieve for a fellow koala who lay dead nearby has encapsulated the trauma faced by wildlife affected by Australia’s devastating bushfires.

The photo was captured by the Humane Society International (HIS) as rescuers searched the fire-ravaged Kangaroo Island for animal survivors.

HSI disaster response chief Kelly Donithan said the scene had become familiar since teams began their searches in Flinders Chase National Park and timber plantations.

The wildfires have so far scorched through 40,000 square miles (104,000 square kilometres) of brushland, rainforests and national parks throughout Australia, killing by one estimate more than a billion animals.

Wildlife organisations fear about half of the 60,000-strong koala population living on the island have not survived, as almost half the island was razed.

An injured Koala sits beside another dead koala on Kangaroo Island before being rescued on January 15, 2020 (AFP via Getty Images) (AFP/Getty)

Ms Donithan told ABC News: “The image of the koala by the water near the body of another koala is particularly heartbreaking.

“The survivors have little to no energy reserves left and we are finding them sitting on the ground totally shut down – all too often with other corpses nearby.”

She added the surviving koala was rescued and taken to an emergency rehabilitation centre at the Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park.

There are also fears for populations of rare and endangered species on the island such as brush-tailed rock wallabies and dunnarts that may have perished in the fires.

Biologists have begun looking for survivors from these species in the hope there may be enough left to rebuild their populations.

Kingsley Dixon, an ecologist at Curtin University in Perth, said: “I don’t think we’ve seen a single event in Australia that has destroyed so much habitat and pushed so many creatures to the very brink of extinction.

The population of brush-tailed wallabies before the fires started were estimated to be as few as 15,000 left in the wild. They resemble miniature kangaroos with long floppy tails and prefer hiding near large boulders.

Animals rescued during Australia fires Show all 25 1 /25 Animals rescued during Australia fires Animals rescued during Australia fires Wildlife rescuer Simon Adamczyk is seen with a koala rescued at a burning forest near Cape Borda on Kangaroo Island, southwest of Adelaide AAP Image/Reuters Animals rescued during Australia fires Rural Fire Service volunteer firefighter Pat Smith pouring water onto a possum's feet with burns from fires on the outskirts of the town of Tumbarumba in New South Wales Greenpeace Australia-Pacific/AFP Animals rescued during Australia fires Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education volunteer and carer Tracy Dodd holds a kangaroo with burnt feet pads after being rescued from bushfires in Australia's Blue Mountains area Reuters Animals rescued during Australia fires Grey-headed Flying Fox bats prepared for a feeding at the Uralla, Australia, home of Jackie Maisey, a volunteer with Northern Tableands Wildlife Carers. The bats are swaddled in flannel wraps similar to those being made by thousands of crafters worldwide who are using their sewing, knitting and crocheting skills to make items for wildlife injured in the Australian brush fires Jackie Maisey/AP Animals rescued during Australia fires Sara Tilling takes care of a young injured Kangaroo which she and her partner Gary Henderson are nursing back to health in Cobargo EPA Animals rescued during Australia fires Humane Society International Crisis Response Specialist, Kelly Donithan holds a baby Koala she just rescued on Kangaroo Island AFP via Getty Images Animals rescued during Australia fires Tracy Burgess holds a severely burnt brushtail possum Reuters Animals rescued during Australia fires Fire-impacted, orphaned pouch-rescued Eastern Grey Kangaroo joeys are seen at the property of WIRES Carers Kevin and Lorita Clapson in East Lynne, South of Sydney EPA Animals rescued during Australia fires A koala receives water from a cyclist during a severe heatwave that hit the region, in Adelaide Instagram/BIKEBUG2019 via Reuters Animals rescued during Australia fires An orphaned Flying-Fox is fed at the property of WIRES Mid-South Coast Bat Coordinator, Janet Jones, in Tuross Head EPA Animals rescued during Australia fires Humane Society International Crisis Response Specialist, Kelly Donithan checks an injured Koala she had just rescued on Kangaroo Island AFP via Getty Animals rescued during Australia fires A wallabie eating a carrot dropped by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife services over the bushfire affected areas along the South Coast for wallabies NSW National Parks and Wildlife Services Animals rescued during Australia fires A dehydrated and injured Koala receives treatment at the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital AFP via Getty Animals rescued during Australia fires Gary Henderson holds the young injured kangaroo he and his partner are nursing back to health EPA Animals rescued during Australia fires A koala drinks water offered from a bottle by a firefighter during bushfires in Cudlee Creek, south Australia Oakbank Balhannah CFS via Reuters Animals rescued during Australia fires WIRES Mid South Coast wombat coordinator Tony De La Fosse with two orphaned pouch-rescued Wombats at his property in Malua Bay EPA Animals rescued during Australia fires Qantas, an orphaned Eastern Grey Kangaroo joey whose feet were burned in recent bushfires, is held by WIRES Carer Kevin Clapson at his property in East Lynne EPA Animals rescued during Australia fires Various completed animal pouches for animals affected by Australia bushfires hang on clothing racks in Regents Park, Queensland Kim Simeon via Reuters Animals rescued during Australia fires An orphaned pouch-rescued Eastern Grey Kangaroo joey hangs in a makeshift pouch at the property of WIRES EPA Animals rescued during Australia fires A rescued koala injured in a bushfire in Kangaroo Island, South Australia Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park/AP Animals rescued during Australia fires WIRES Mid-South Coast Bat Coordinator Janet Jones weighs a rescued Grey-Headed Flying-Fox at her home in Tuross Head EPA Animals rescued during Australia fires A weary kangaroo shelters on a patch of green grass surrounded by burnt bushland along the Princes Highway near in Milton Reuters Animals rescued during Australia fires Various animal wraps for bats affected by bushfires Simone Watts via Reuters Animals rescued during Australia fires A staff member moving a rescued koala to a temporary shelter at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney Taronga Zoo/AFP via Getty Animals rescued during Australia fires A kangaroo jumps in a field amidst smoke from a bushfire in Snowy Valley AFP via Getty Images

Ecologist Guy Ballard, from the University of New England in Armidale, said when his team first started searching for survivors, they only came across dead animals and burnt tree stumps.

“It was just devastating,” he said. “You could smell dead animals in the rocks.”

But the team found hope in some surviving wallabies and trekked through ash-covered Oxley Wild Rivers National Park with water and food to lure other survivors out to be rescued.

Last week, thousands of kilograms of carrots and sweet potatoes were air-dropped throughout New South Wales to help feed surviving animals in Operation Rock Wallaby.

The Australian government announced Monday that it was spending A$50 million (£38.4m) on emergency wildlife rescue efforts and habitat recovery.

University of Sydney ecologist Chris Dickman estimated more than a billion animals have been killed as a result of the fires so far, including tens of millions of possums and small marsupials known as gliders.