Fire has major impacts on ecosystems and burns are common in Zagros forest, each year vast areas of forest ecosystems are burned in Iran. The fire influences species by altering habitat, available resources, predation rate, reproductive success, species richness and abundance. We investigated the responses of lizards to fire in North Zagros Oak Forests. Field studies were conducted from late March to late October 2016, from 8 am to 5 pm. Surveys were carried out based on observation and using pitfall trap both in the recently burned forest and the unburned site. In each site which was 22 ha, 24 pitfall traps (20 cm width and 40 cm height in size) were installed randomly into the ground. Captured reptiles were identified, marked, photographed, measured and released on site. The higher number of species and specimens were observed in those microhabitats which were covered by tree and shrubs due to the availabilities of food and refuge. Our results indicated that fire caused a significant negative impact on the lizard populations in Barghoro forest. Lizards were more abundant (67 %) in unburned site. Also, comparison of species diversity and richness indices between burned and control sites showed that the species diversity and richness in the control site was significantly higher than the burned site. Furthermore, we found fire could negatively impact large reptile populations as the abundances of some large species such as; Timon kurdistanica had declined considerably since 2015 fire in Barghoro Forest.
