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Fire is a challenge for animals living in the grassland environment.
Large animals like bison can move to a new location to escape the fire.
Prairie dogs can retreat into their tunnels. Horned larks can fly away.
But if the horned larks have eggs in a nest or babies that can’t yet fly,
they will die. The grasshoppers are not strong fliers. They can fly a short
distance to safety, but if the fire is large, the grasshoppers will die.
In the spring after a fire, new grass sprouts come up from the roots.
The ashes provide nutrients for the new grass. The animals that ran
from the fire will return. Grasshoppers will fly in and reproduce. The
grassland is soon full of life once again.
A prairie dog
An American bison
A grasshopper
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