Contrasting responses of small mammals to fire and topographic refugia

Abstract

Unburnt patches within burnt landscapes are expected to provide an important resource for fauna, potentially acting as a refuge from direct effects of fire and allowing animals to persist in burnt landscapes. Nevertheless, there is little information about the way refugia are used by fauna and how populations may be affected by them. Planned burns are often patchy, with unburnt areas generally associated with gully systems providing a good opportunity to study faunal use of refugia. We used a before-after control-impact design associated with a planned burn in south eastern Australia to investigate how two small mammal species, the bush rat Rattus fuscipes and agile antechinus Antechinus agi..