After seeing the scale of the recent California wildfires from space, it seems amazing that any kind of ground based monitoring equipment could have survived. But pictures have been recovered from a US Geological Survey wildlife monitoring camera.
The motion sensitive camera snapped a coyote seemingly fleeing the fire and another shot from just over a day later shows what could be the same coyote trotting back after the blaze subsided. In the interim this spectacular shot of the flames was captured.
        
Oct. 22, 2007, 04:50 PST. Coyote fleeing from the fires
Oct. 23, 2007, 23:12 PST. Coyote heading back
There’s even some science to come out of all this. “We hope that we are able to do follow-up research to help discern where the displaced carnivores go, as the options are slim between urban areas or unburned areas that already have bobcats and coyotes present who will not welcome newcomers to their territories. If so, we will have the opportunity to understand how fires interact with patterns of carnivore behavior and ecology and what the implications are for conservation of these species, especially in habitat surrounded by urban areas,” says researcher Erin Boydston.
See also this recent Nature story.
Images: all images courtesy of USGS.