The Influence of Fire on Small Mammals

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The Influence of Fire on Small Mammals
Christopher M. McGlone FOR 551
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• Relevance of fire for small mammals
• Most small mammals have limited
• long-range mobility
• Difficult to escape fire
• Burrowing most effective means
• Often more dependent on
• condition of immediate
• environment

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• Fire has most important impacts on
• small mammals via
• Nest quality and availability
• Reduction in shelter from predation
• Quality and availability of forage

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• Influence on nesting habitat
• Direct mortality
• Consumption of nesting habitat
• Least important for belowground
• nesters

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• Direct mortality
• Greatest impact is on ground
• nesters (no protection from fire)
• Rabbits
• Harvest Mice
• Woodrats
• (Quinn 1979, Kaufman et al. 1988,
• Simons 1991)

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• Consumption of nesting habitat
• Particularly important for small
• mammals that use dead woody
• material for nesting
• Deer mice
• Mexican voles
• Porcupines
• Animals will abandon an area that
• no longer has suitable nesting
• habitat
• (Lyon et al. 2000, Chambers and Germaine 2003)

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• Burrowing mammals
• Very effective method of fire
• avoidance
• Mexican voles
• Kangaroo rats
• Burrows usually deep enough to
• avoid fatal heat
• Inadequate ventilation can be a
• serious threat to burrowing
• mammals
• (Quinn 1979, Hedlund and Rickard 1981, Geluso et
  al. 1986)
• Photo www.animals.timduru.org

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• Influence on shelter availability
• Consumption of ground-level
• material
• Removal of canopy

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• Consumption of ground-level shelter
• Many small mammals use downed
• woody debris as shelter while
• foraging
• Ground squirrel
• Mexican woodrat
• Mexican voles
• (Chambers and Germaine 2003)

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• Loss of canopy
• Heavily burned areas often see an
• increase in predator abundance
• Loss of proper shelter will also
• cause animals to abandon an area
• (Tewes 1984, Vacanti and Geluso 1985, Groves and
  Steenhof 1988)

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• Changes in forage availability
• Fire can alter understory vegetation
• Transition from late to
• early successional
• Fire can alter trees
• Tree mortality
• Increase in live tree vigor

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• Changes in understory vegetation
• Can be either positive or negative
• Tends to favor generalists
• Deer mice
• Tends to be detrimental to specialists
• Pinyon mice
• (Ahlgren 1966, Heinein et al. 1998
• Lyon et al. 2000)

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• Changes in tree availability
• Tree mortality results in reduced
• forage availability
• Reduction in competition can result
• in increased growth and seed
• production
• Tassel-eared squirrel
• (Patton et al. 1985, Elson 1999)
• Photo www.bbc.uk.com

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Tassel-eared squirrel foraging patterns and
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