Name: What Happens To Animals During A Wildfire
Uploaded: 2018-11-29T02:26:34.000Z
Duration: 3 min 33 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

displaces thousands of people and animals,

and incinerates millions of acres of land.

But, believe it or not, there are more benefits

For example, some wildlife don't just survive the flames;

In 2001, wildfires in New Mexico destroyed

the endangered Jemez Mountains salamander's habitat.

But the population survived by hiding out

It turns out many amphibians and smaller animals

who can't outrun the flames take cover in logs,

under rocks, or by burying themselves in the dirt.

At the other end of the spectrum, large animals

like elk and deer flee to streams or lakes for protection.

Koalas, for example, will instinctively crawl up trees,

they're also an opportunity, especially for predators

who hunt down creatures trying to escape.

that raptors will intentionally spread fires

Pine trees, for example, open up their waxy cones

But it's the ashes the fire leaves behind

that fertilize the soil so the seeds can grow.

Moreover, the fire removes debris as well

as dead and diseased plants, which exposes the ground

This helps seedlings sprout and can sometimes

even spawn thousands of flowers in the fire's wake.

The charred remains of trees provide the perfect habitat

Wood wasps, for instance, depend on the burned trees

And other animals like black-backed woodpeckers

will actively seek out burned forests for a tasty snack.

They binge on bark beetles that live in the dead trees

and make their homes in the blackened bark.

And while this delicate balance between destruction

and new growth has been a way of life for millennia,

Over the last century, we stifled wildfires

and contained plenty of deadwood just waiting

and more droughts, has made wildfires more devastating

and frequent than ever before in places like California,

So if we don't start clearing dead vegetation

and helping fires run their natural course,

we may end up threatening forests and wildlife

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What Happens To Animals During A Wildfire

process

opportunity

delicate

thrive