An accidental burned lunch in a room at the Audobon Zoo in New Orleans has led scientists in Australia to determine that lizards can smell fire and act accordingly to avoid it.
An accidental burned lunch in a room at the Audobon Zoo in New Orleans has led scientists in Australia to determine that lizards, specifically the Australian sleepy lizard (Tiliqua rugosa) or shingleback skink can smell fire and act accordingly to avoid it.
The staff at the zoo burned his or her lunch and the room in which the lunch was burned filled with the acrid smell of smoke. That smoke in turn alerted the shingleback skinks that were in the room, causing them to flick their tongues rapidly and attempt to escape their enclosures. Because the skinks were captive bred, the zoo keepers speculated that the drive to escape the room was due to their evolutionary history. They come from fire prone regions of Australia.
The Iconic Australian Shingleback Skink—In The Wild And In Captivity
Researchers with Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and Gubali Institute, Charles Sturt University, Albury, New South Wales, Australia conducted experiments with wild-caught shingleback skinks. The study involved exposing the skinks to smoke from dry native grass (Heteropogon contortus) through an infusion smoker, and water vapor and determined that the skinks responded to the smoke but not the water vapor. The researchers also exposed the skinks to the auditory sound of fire. There was no reaction from the reptiles to the auditory sounds. This, the researchers say, suggests the skinks react to chemosensory cues for fire detection. These cues elicit an escape response in the lizards whose habitats include fire prone areas, which show an evolved behavioral adaptation.
But this is not always the case. While other lizard species, such as the Mediterranean lizard (Psammodromus algirus) reacts strongly to the smell of smoke, other lizards, such as the Western fence lizard, (Sceloporus occidentalis), and chalky reed frogs, (Hyperolius nitidulus) appear to react to the sound of fire.
The complete research paper, “From anecdote to evidence: experimental validation of fire-cue recognition in Australian sleepy lizards” can be read on the Biology Letters website.
