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Local Mammal Site Use Fell in Burned Namibian Savanna During the First Five Months After Wildfire

Savanna grassland burning in Kafue National Park, Zambia
Research · Ecology

Medium- and large-sized mammals used recently burned savanna less and less during the first five months after a large wildfire in eastern Namibia. Across 31 species, estimated local site use in burned areas fell from 0.53 before the fire to 0.33 five months later. Unburned control areas changed little, from 0.45 to 0.43. The study was published on 23 July 2026 in Oecologia.

The wildfire burned about 650 km² of tree-and-shrub savanna from 1 to 4 October 2021, cutting through roughly a third of an area that was already being monitored with camera traps. Researchers used 64 camera-trap stations across burned areas, an 8-km zone around the fire and unburned controls, giving them one month of data before the fire and five months afterward. Because the 31 species had very different home-range sizes, the authors interpret the model estimates as how intensively each local site was used, rather than as strict occupancy. A decline in this measure therefore means reduced use of the monitored sites, not a directly measured decline in the number of animals in the wider population.

The decline differed among ecological groups

The decline was not equally strong across ecological groups. Small carnivore generalists, small carnivore specialists and burrow-associated mammals showed the largest burned-versus-control contrasts, at about 20–22%. Grazers and large carnivores showed smaller differences. Nearby unburned areas did not become clear refuges for displaced mammals; community-level site use there declined from 0.58 to 0.52, rather than remaining as stable as the distant controls. This pattern suggests that the effects associated with the fire extended beyond the burned perimeter.

Individual species followed very different patterns

Individual species also differed. Cape porcupines (Hystrix africaeaustralis) declined in burned areas while remaining stable elsewhere. Common warthogs (Phacochoerus africanus) showed no decline in the burned zone but increased in the two unburned zones, and greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) changed little in burned areas. Black-backed jackals (Lupulella mesomelas) and aardvarks (Orycteropus afer) declined in more than one zone, so their patterns were not specific to the burned area. Cheetah estimates suggested a modest decline in burned areas, but there were too few detections for the model to estimate the species-level pattern reliably, so that result remains uncertain.

Study area, camera-trap images and post-fire environmental conditions in eastern Namibia
Camera-trap images before, during and after the October 2021 wildfire, together with the study zones and environmental changes. Figure 1 from Verschueren et al. (2026), Oecologia, CC BY 4.0.

Vegetation recovered just as mammal monitoring ended

Burned areas were hotter, drier and initially less productive, with less vegetation cover and growth. Vegetation productivity recovered strongly late in the wet season and by month five exceeded the unburned zones, but monitoring ended at that point, so the study could not show whether mammal use subsequently recovered. The authors link the community-wide decline mainly to these post-fire habitat changes. One important limitation is that cattle were also removed from burned areas after the fire, so the effects of fire and livestock removal cannot be completely separated. However, removing cattle would normally reduce competition for forage among large herbivores, whereas grazers and browsers still declined in burned areas. The authors therefore argue that livestock removal alone is unlikely to explain the overall pattern.

Sources and image credit

  1. Verschueren, S., Ruozzi, M. L., Marker, L., Leirs, H., & Cristescu, B. (2026). Early post-fire declines of mammals in a tree-and-shrub savanna. Oecologia, 208, 100. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-026-05939-wPrimary open-access research article published 23 July 2026. Camera traps monitored 31 medium- to large-sized mammal species in eastern Namibia for one month before and five months after a wildfire. Community-level local site use declined from 0.53 to 0.33 in burned areas while remaining nearly stable in unburned controls. The authors note that cattle were also temporarily removed from burned areas, although they argue fire-driven habitat change is the more likely main driver of the observed pattern.

Image: Timothy A. Gonsalves / Wikimedia Commons — controlled savanna grassland burn in Kafue National Park, Zambia; representative savanna-fire image, not the 2021 wildfire studied in Namibia · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

About this content: This story was produced with AI assistance within an editorial workflow developed by Wildlife Vagabond. Editorial responsibility remains with Wildlife Vagabond.How AI is used

Ecology

SPECIES IN THIS STORY

Species in this story

Black-backed Jackal Lupulella mesomelas Explore species Common Warthog Phacochoerus africanus Explore species Cape Porcupine Hystrix africaeaustralis Explore species Aardvark Orycteropus afer Explore species

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