Fire-prone-habitat animals sense fires through infrared, smell, and smoke cues.

Evidence

However, organisms that live in fire-prone habitats have developed a special sensibility that allows them to benefit from the consequences of burns or to escape the risk of being killed by flames using olfactory or visual sensations. For instance, buprestid beetles are attracted by fire that is localized by using infrared sensors and antenna olfactory receptors. Ungulates move in burnt areas to find fresh vegetable masses sprouting from ash-fertilized soil. Birds are attracted by fires to find fleeing insects in the proximity. Some animals fly away, but others, such as ticks, after sensing smoke, drop to the ground and search for a safe shelter. — Almo Farina, Soundscape Ecology, 350

Categorization

• CANDY: Fire-locating beetles with infrared sensors and ticks that drop to shelter when sensing smoke are snackable animal-fact tidbits.
• XREF: connects to: Timber wolf pack survival depends on fire-maintained prey habitat across large territories. — Miron L. Heinselman, Fire in the Virgin Forests of the…, 432; Dependence on fire shaped a psychological content bias for fire learning. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 230

Broader Connections

• Dependence on fire shaped a psychological content bias for fire learning. #expands (0.78) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 230