In movies, stories and even in survival tv shows they tell you that a fire protects you from attacks of predators during the night. Why and how does it work?

Question

Are there exceptions?

In: Biology

Answer 1

It’s not especially complicated. The fire just scares them away. Most animals have an instinctual fear of fire (for what I assume are obvious reasons) so they stay away from it. This is true for animals during the day too, but especially at night, since nocturnal animals prefer the dark, and fire creates light.

And are there exceptions? Sure, there are always exceptions. It always boils down the specific circumstances. A sufficiently motivated animal,(say one that’s starving and can smell the hotdogs you cooked over the campfire earlier) might be motivated enough to overcome their fear and get close to investigate, but for the most part, fire is a really good predator repellent.