In their path of destruction, the Los Angeles wildfires have transformed parts of Southern California into a blackened landscape with remnants of infrastructure and history. Nearly 60,000 acres were burned, and around 16,000 buildings were destroyed.

Alongside the humanitarian, economic and migratory burdens these disasters have caused, stress has been placed on wild and domestic animals.

“These animals that are being displaced often venture into human-populated areas seeking shelter, as seen with the black bears occupying evacuated homes in Altadena and Pasadena,” said Skyler Nahouray, president of the USC Humane Society and a junior majoring in health promotion and disease prevention studies.

In other cases, animals have been harmed directly by the fires. The Pasadena Humane Society has acted as an emergency evacuation shelter for burned and displaced animals in the Eaton Fire area.

The organization boarded 450 animals at the start of the fires and currently still hosts 180 animals. Although the Pasadena Humane Society is a fairly large shelter, its biggest challenge was the large number of animals that needed aid.

“We had to be really creative about how we housed the animals. We had to use some spaces that wouldn’t normally be used for animal housing and … convert those,” said Kevin McManus, director of public relations and communications for the Pasadena Humane Society. “We had a lot of animals on site when the fires broke out that were already available for adoption.”

Another challenge for Pasadena Humane was reuniting pets with their owners, especially those unrecognizable due to their injuries. McManus said some animals have yet to be reunited with their families.

“There’s a husky who we have featured on a number of things. He came in the first night with burns,” McManus said. “We’ve been treating his wounds, hoping to reconnect him with his people. No one has ever come forward … So, it’s kind of frustrating in that sense.”

However, the organization’s efforts to reunite owners with their pets have not all been unsuccessful. Several have been rescued, cared for and taken back home. A pitbull named Canelo was reunited with his owners after running away while the family was evacuating.

“I was in the office when they were picking him up, and it was amazing. He was just so happy. That was really one of the most impactful things. This is why we are doing this — so we can reunite these lost pets with their families,” McManus said.

Angelenos have also stepped up to contribute to the Pasadena Humane Society’s efforts. When the organization asked for donations, people were lined up for two days and filled their parking lot with things like food, leashes and collars, according to McManus.

“It was just an amazing outpouring of support and love … People were driving from all over to bring us stuff because they saw that we were responding to [the fires],” McManus said.

Another organization involved in animal rescue efforts is the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, which typically provides boarding facilities, horse trails, training programs and serves as a venue for events.

However, as of Jan. 7, the center was deemed an evacuation site, and soon horses and other large animals, including pigs, donkeys, goats and a mini cow, began arriving. Jennie Nevin, executive director of business development and communications for the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, attests to the process of caring for these animals.

“They get logged on a log. They get put safely into a stall. They get given water and hay and bedding. … The first night, we got about two to three hundred, and then over that first week, we had maxed out at 408 total,” Nevin said.

Because of the Los Angeles Parks Foundation’s support, the Equestrian Center has been able to improve its funds and day-to-day operations, which include feeding, maintaining and attending to the needs of these animals. Along with the venue team and management staff, volunteers see to the animals’ care.

“Some people have never been around horses or large animals, but they’re willing to chip in, and they’re cleaning stalls and throwing hay and cleaning water pipes and getting dirty with us. And it was an amazing, inspiring space to be a part of, helping us to fulfill our mission to serve the community and help L.A. during this terrible time,” Nevin said.

According to Nevin, the center is not just about providing asylum to large animals. Its work also highlights the humanitarian aspect behind the movement — serving the human owners behind domesticated animals.

“People called us ‘Noah’s Ark.’ We were a safe refuge for people and their animals to come. And when you come in that night and you’re scared and you’re rushing away from the fire and you need a safe place to be, it’s a pretty amazing experience to have your animal be able to go into a safe shelter,” Nevin said.

Land animals are not the only species that the fires have impacted. As Dante Capone, a doctoral student at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, explained, wildfires can have far-reaching effects on marine ecosystems.

“What that does, from an ecological standpoint, is it favors the animals or the plants, phytoplankton or algae that can grow well under those conditions — whether that’s low light because of the smoke and the shading from the ash, whether that’s higher nutrients, if the ash is adding nutrients, or if that’s high stress from the toxins if the ash is adding toxins,” Capone said.

In addition, Capone said the combination of rain and dry ash may cause large mudslides and waste runoff that bleed into the sea. However, there are limitations in current research on how marine ecosystems have been affected.

“We have no idea what [the effect] will be yet, because the studies that have been done so far have all relied on satellite and remote sensing measurements, and those are things that can only really pick up very coarse things.”

Although contributors have helped hundreds of animals who have been affected by the fires, there is still more work to be done, McManus said.

“We are, of course, always looking for fosters and volunteers. There’s links for both of those. Adopt, no matter where you are,” McManus said.

If residents are unable to help directly, he said they can also contribute through donations that “help [their] day-to-day operations.”

“It was just beautiful to see how we humans can impact the lives [of animals],” Nahouray said, “because they don’t have a voice and can’t tell us what they’re feeling, especially during this hard time.”