Uploaded June 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Republished from Zero, for public non-profit education purposes only:
" The Amazon rainforestꟷhome to one in ten species on Earthꟷis one fire. As of last week, 9,000 wildfires were raging simultaneously across the vast rainforest of Brazil spreading into Bolivia, Paraguay, and Peru. The blazes, largely set intentionally to clear land for cattle ranching, farming, and logging, have been exacerbated by the dry season. They're now burning in massive numbers, an 80 percent increase over this time last year, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE). The fires can even be seen from space.
For the thousands of mammal, reptile, amphibian, and bird species that live in the Amazon, the wildfires' impact will come in two phases: one immediate, one long-term.
"In the Amazon, nothing is adapted to fire," says William Magnusson, a researcher specializing in biodiversity monitoring at the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA) in Manaus, Brazil.
In some forests, including many across the U.S., wildfires are essential for maintaining healthy ecosystems. Animals are adapted to cope with it; many even rely on it to thrive. The black-bellied woodpecker, for example, native to the American West, only nests in burnt-out trees and eats the beetles that infest burned wood.
But the Amazon is different.
The rainforest is so uniquely rich and diverse precisely because it doesn't really burn, says Magnusson. While fires do sometimes happen naturally, they're typically small in scale and burn low to the ground. And they're quickly put out by rain.
"Basically, the Amazon hadn't burnt in hundreds of thousands or millions of years," says Magnusson. It's not like Australia, for instance, where eucalyptus would die out without regular fires, he says. The rainforest is not built for fires.
How are the fires affecting individual animals right now?
It's likely they're taking a "massive toll on wildlife in the short term," says Mazeika Sullivan, associate professor at Ohio State University's School of Environment and Natural Resources, who has done fieldwork in the Colombian Amazon.
Generally, in the midst of wildfire, Sullivan says, animals have very few choices. They can try to hide by burrowing or going into water, he says. They can be displaced. Or they can perish. In this situation, a lot of animals will die, from flames, heat from the flames, or smoke inhalation, Sullivan says. "
Republished from Zero, for public non-profit education purposes only:
" The Amazon rainforestꟷhome to one in ten species on Earthꟷis one fire. As of last week, 9,000 wildfires were raging simultaneously across the vast rainforest of Brazil spreading into Bolivia, Paraguay, and Peru. The blazes, largely set intentionally to clear land for cattle ranching, farming, and logging, have been exacerbated by the dry season. They're now burning in massive numbers, an 80 percent increase over this time last year, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE). The fires can even be seen from space.
For the thousands of mammal, reptile, amphibian, and bird species that live in the Amazon, the wildfires' impact will come in two phases: one immediate, one long-term.
"In the Amazon, nothing is adapted to fire," says William Magnusson, a researcher specializing in biodiversity monitoring at the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA) in Manaus, Brazil.
In some forests, including many across the U.S., wildfires are essential for maintaining healthy ecosystems. Animals are adapted to cope with it; many even rely on it to thrive. The black-bellied woodpecker, for example, native to the American West, only nests in burnt-out trees and eats the beetles that infest burned wood.
But the Amazon is different.
The rainforest is so uniquely rich and diverse precisely because it doesn't really burn, says Magnusson. While fires do sometimes happen naturally, they're typically small in scale and burn low to the ground. And they're quickly put out by rain.
"Basically, the Amazon hadn't burnt in hundreds of thousands or millions of years," says Magnusson. It's not like Australia, for instance, where eucalyptus would die out without regular fires, he says. The rainforest is not built for fires.
How are the fires affecting individual animals right now?
It's likely they're taking a "massive toll on wildlife in the short term," says Mazeika Sullivan, associate professor at Ohio State University's School of Environment and Natural Resources, who has done fieldwork in the Colombian Amazon.
Generally, in the midst of wildfire, Sullivan says, animals have very few choices. They can try to hide by burrowing or going into water, he says. They can be displaced. Or they can perish. In this situation, a lot of animals will die, from flames, heat from the flames, or smoke inhalation, Sullivan says. "
