After a prescribed fire, wildlife biologists have less than two weeks to document the number of dead animals, according to a new study published in the Australian Journal of Zoology.
“Conducting surveys immediately after fire is essential if we want an accurate picture of how many small animals are being killed by prescribed burns,” said Shawn Scott, a researcher at Adelaide University in South Australia who led the study.
Researchers monitored prescribed burns in the Mount Lofty Ranges near Adelaide, searching for carcasses of lizards that had died in prescribed burns in eucalyptus forests. They found the majority of the carcasses within 28 hours after the fire. By 12 days post-fire, each of the carcasses had disappeared.
The authors believe that scavengers are responsible for getting rid of the crispy carcasses, leading scientists that arrive too late to underestimate the number of animals killed in a fire.
“Our recommendation to do wildlife surveys immediately after prescribed burns will likely improve our understanding of other animals being killed, including small mammals, frogs and invertebrates,” Scott said.
