What do animals do during prescribed fires? 🔥 This is a question that I’ve gotten several times when talking about how important fire is for the environment. 🐢 I am often talking about how important fire is for the plants in fire-adapted habitats, and I think people wonder if we’re helping the plants while hurting the animals in the process. 🐢 But the animals in these habitats have also adapted to live with fire! In fact, many species of animals start to decline without fire, and their populations improve when fire is reintroduced to the landscape. 🐢 So how do animals survive fires? Many of them are able to run or fly away from the area that is burning. 🐢 Then there are the animals that don’t want (or are unable) to flee the scene of the fire, and that’s where the gopher tortoise comes in, like the one pictured that I saw at @boktowergardens 🐢 Gopher tortoises build burrows underground, where they live and spend most of their time. But they aren’t the only animals who occupy these tunnels. 🐢 The number continues to increase as we learn more, but the most recent number I’ve seen is that 350-400 species use the gopher tortoise’s burrow. So when a fire comes through an area, you may find anything from rodents to snakes to owls hiding out with the gopher tortoise. 🐢 Like storms, flooding, tree fall, or any natural disturbance, there is always a chance that some animals may not survive. (Even a simple rain that brings life to most of an area may still kill an insect or two.) However, the overall goal is to make sure that an ecosystem has its overall needs met so that the life within it stays healthy and balanced, and fire is an incredibly important component in habitats that have adapted for it! 🐢 🔥 🌲 #wildlife #explorida #roamflorida #outsideisfree #tortoise #gophertortoise #turtle #lakewalesridge #pureflorida #florida #lovefl #nature #boktower #boktowergarden #floridascrub #fire #prescribedfire #polkproud #visitcentralfl @visitcentralfl (at Bok Tower Gardens) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpTqpD0uHUT/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=