An accidental burned lunch in a room at the Audobon Zoo in New Orleans has led scientists in Australia to determine that lizards can smell fire and act accordingly to avoid it. The staff at the zoo burned his or her lunch and the room in which the lunch was burned filled with the acrid smell of smoke. That smoke in turn alerted the shingleback skinks that were in the room, causing them to flick their tongues rapidly and attempt to escape their enclosures. Because the skinks were captive bred, the zoo keepers speculated that the drive to escape the room was due to their evolutionary history. AdvertisementResearchers with Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and Gubali Institute, Charles Sturt University, Albury, New South Wales, Australia conducted experiments with wild-caught shingleback skinks.