As the wildfires in Turkey's southern Marmaris province are now completely under control, volunteers from the country's leading animal rights organization, the Animal Rights Federation (HAYTAP), are searching for animals that hid underground to escape the blazes.
So far, volunteers have saved numerous turtles and hedgehogs from the flames. Efforts are being made to find the animals that managed to survive in the burned areas after the forest fire on June 21 in the Hisarönü suburb of the Bördübet and Yedi Adalar regions.
HAYTAP members also go to the points where the fire is under control and work in places where animals can hide. The nongovernmental organization (NGO) even established a field hospital for injured animals and volunteers named a dog that came to them for treatment as Ateş ("Fire" in Turkish).
HAYTAP's Aydın representative, Mehmet Gürhan Tığoğlu, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that after the fire in Marmaris, they joined the animal rescue effort as a federation.
Tığoğlu outlined that the volunteers made great efforts to reach the stranded animals that managed to survive the fire. "Some of the animals are able to escape from the flames, while animals such as turtles and hedgehogs try to save themselves by hiding under the ground. Our volunteers spend the whole day in the burn areas trying to find a trace of the animals. This is really true. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack," he said.
Emphasizing that they removed many turtles from their hiding places, Tığoğlu said: "Unfortunately, the turtles are the most unfortunate in the fire. When we see the rabbits fleeing from us, we are glad that they were not harmed. We now try to think like them and move among the ashes. They go underground by somehow digging. They definitely leave traces behind them. After the fire extinguishing works are completed and the land has cooled, our role begins."
Petek Nur Sezer from the HAYTAP team said that they came to the area one day after the fire started and they scanned the burned areas.
Pointing out that hedgehogs and turtles are the biggest victims of fires, Sezer said, "Unfortunately, we can't do anything for those who are in the middle of the fire, but it is easier to find them when they are trying to escape to stream beds and roads. Sometimes animals come from places we do not expect. We see animals that we thought would never be here."
Stating that they saved more than 90 turtles in the fire in the district last year, Sezer said that they could not reach many animals this year due to terrain conditions, but the search efforts continue.
