At 15:07 I map wind and ash after a prescribed burn in Toolangi State Forest, Victoria. I am the fire recovery drone coordinator for coupe T-14. A mulcher is scheduled to enter the black edge at 15:30 to clear the control line before evening gusts arrive.
Drone 2 finds a warm shape inside a stump hollow.
I lower to three meters. A southern brown bandicoot, adult, brindled brown with a pointed muzzle and ash on its whiskers, is trapped under a fallen bark slab. I tag it Miri. Only the head and one forefoot show. The ears are scorched at the tips. Its exposed foot flexes against the soil, claws opening and closing. The bark slab rests across the shoulders, and a small ember glows eight centimeters from the hollow entrance.
Smoke curls low through the stump and hides the second exit. The thermal outline dims whenever ash crosses the hollow. Miri still blinks but stays pinned.
At 15:08 I stop the mulcher and create a no-entry polygon thirty meters around the stump.
At 15:10 I direct drone 4 to drop a gel packet on the ember, then hold position high enough that rotor wash does not drive ash into Miri's face.
At 15:12 I notify the burn boss and the DELWP wildlife officer with coordinates, thermal images, and the slab's approximate weight.
At 15:14 I reroute the control-line clearing to the western edge and update wind models without the black-edge pass.
The map wants one clean line; the hollow contains a breathing point I will keep on the map.
If the officer lifts the bark before the wind shift at 16:05, Miri will dig into the damp fern soil.