A western fence lizard at Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park in California Shutterstock/trekandshoot
Lizards living in habitats recently scorched by wildfire are more attentive to the sound of flames than lizards from nearby unburnt regions, suggesting their fire avoidance is learned rather than innate.
After noticing that many western fence lizards (Sceloporus occidentalis) managed to live through wildfires in the western US that wiped out other animals, Lola Álvarez-Ruiz at the Spanish National Research Council and her team began investigating how fire may be shaping the behaviour of these reptiles. …
