Wildfires are important in shaping plants communities and in driving patterns of
biodiversity. However, the effect of wildfires on animals has been less explored.
Some animals cannot easily move away from disturbances, like fires. How do they
survive such events? We focused on lizards to address this question. There is evidence
that lizards can survive wildfires. Lizards probably use sensory cues like sight and
sound to recognize threats and flee to a safe hiding place. Those that respond
appropriately will survive, while those that do not will perish.
We aimed to test if the western fence lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis) recognizes the
sound of fire as a threat. We compared the behavior of the lizards following an
experimental playback where we broadcast to wild lizards the sound of fire along with
other natural sounds. We conducted our playbacks in burned areas (survivors from
Woolsey Fire), unburned wild areas, and urban areas (The Gottlieb Native Garden and
around Griffith Park).
While we are not finished analyzing our results, we expected that populations living in
recently burned areas and adjacent areas will be more sensitive to the sound of fire
than those living in ecosystems that rarely burn, such as urban areas. Understanding
how animals respond to fire is important to fully comprehend ecological and
evolutionary processes, as well as for species conservation in a changing world.
