Fires in savannas are often caused by poachers who want to clear away dead grass to make it easier to see their prey. The fires do not devastate the community. Most of the animals killed by the fires are insects with short life spans. A fire is a feast for some animals, such as birds that come to sites of fires to eat grasshoppers, stick insects, beetles, mice, and lizards that are killed or driven out by the fire. Underground holes and crevices provide a safe refuge for small creatures.
Larger animals are usually able to run fast enough to escape the fire.
Although the dry stems and leaves of grasses are consumed by fire, the grasses' deep roots remain unharmed. These roots, with all their starch reserves, are ready to send up new growth when the soil becomes more moist. The scattered shrubs can also subsist on food reserves in their roots while they await the time to venture above the soil again. Unlike grasses and shrubs, trees survive a fire by retaining some moisture in all their above-ground parts throughout the dry season. Sometimes they have a corky bark or semisucculent trunk covered with smooth resinous bark, both being fire resistant.