Cape Town - The recent Western Cape fires have left a path of death and destruction for slow, young and sick animals who find themselves caught with no means of escape.
The Emma Animal Rescue Society (Tears) has been working overtime to assist domestic and wild animals during the outbreaks around Cape Town.
Spokeswoman Tracy Gilpin said snakes and tortoises were the most common animals burnt to death due to their slower speed.
“We have come across literally hundreds of dead tortoises and many snakes,” said Gilpin.
“We’ve had 50 animals at our facility, mostly dogs, cats, birds and tortoises. Most we have been able to return to guardians or release back into the Red Hill area of the Table Mountain National Park this morning after getting the all-clear.
“We’ve already begun to release the wildlife rescued by Tears Animal Rescue – the less time exposed to humans and urban stress, the better. Those injured will be cared for, either by ourselves or wildlife rehabilitation experts depending on their needs, then released into the wild once they have healed.”
While searching for animals in the blaze, Tears members caught a newly born baby deer. They are searching for the mother but have yet to locate her.
While the fires have a terrible affect on animal life, they are beneficial to the fynbos environment found around the Cape.
Emeritus Professor William Bond, ecologist in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Cape Town said: “Thousands of different kinds of fynbos plants depend on fire at some stage in their life cycle. Many kinds of plants with underground storage organs flower in profusion only after fire and some, such as the fire lilies, only flower when ‘switched on’ by smoke.
“Many plant species, especially legumes, have hard seeds that need fire heat to crack the seed coat and then germinate.”
Bond said some plants such as proteas, tolbosse and many other fynbos plants store seeds inside woody structures which insulate them from the fire heat.
After the fire, the structures open and release the seeds into the soil.
The seeds are protected in the soil after the fire due to the reduction of competitor plants or seed-eating animals such as mice.
The seeds released after the fire will germinate in winter and seedlings will be visible by the following summer.
Bond said: “Many fynbos plant species are not killed by fire but resprout from buds below ground insulated by soil, such as many Cape reeds (restios), or from buds from shoots protected by thick bark. These resprouting plants will often start growing a week or two after a burn.”
The fires also assist in reducing the spread of forest trees which grow along river banks as in years without fires these trees spread and reduce the amount of fynbos.
“So fires tend to favour fynbos, with forests losing. But near the city, where fires are often suppressed for many decades, forests are the winners and gradually spread into fynbos.”
As the plants begin to regrow after the fire, animals will begin returning to the afflicted areas.