Fire takes heavy toll on Rhodes wildlife, including deer

Several of the deer and other animals on the island of Rhodes have been killed in the forest fires raging on the island for seven days, though a precise estimate cannot be made while the fires still burn, firefighters and volunteers on the front reported on Monday.

"We have losses but we do not yet have a full picture of the extent of the destruction because we cannot go to areas where the fire is still raging," the head of the Regional Council and Councillor for the primary sector Filimonas Zannetidis told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency, while noting that the picture that was emerging "was not at all good".

He said that several deer but also sheep and goats have died in the fire, which started in the Apollonon-Laermon forest, a key habitat for the island's deer.

"We hope that many of the deer in this forest region will have managed to escape to adjacent forests. More generally, however, the damage to the island's ecosystem from the ongoing fire is very great but the extent of the destruction will become apparent in the next few days," Zannetidis said.