Two wildfires burning in North Carolina and Virginia are expected to have minimal effects on wildlife and ecosystems, state and federal officials says.

According to recent updates, as of Friday a wildfire in the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was 100 percent contained but is still burning. Meanwhile, a wildfire still burning in the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge fire was at 75 percent containment and had been burned more than 41,000 acres. Both fires have created smoke that has been noticeable in northeastern North Carolina for several weeks.

Catherine Hibbard, a public information officer for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the ecosystem within the Great Dismal Swamp has become adapted to fires. In many cases, she said, a mix of old and new plant life species tend to grow where burned patches of land meet with non-burned patches.

The Dismal Swamp fire is contained to an area of more than 3,000 acres, whereas the Dismal Swamp is spread over a total of about 110,000 acres. The hottest part of the fire is burning around an area where several Atlantic White Cedars were knocked down during Hurricane Isabel in 2003, Hibbard said. While the fire has detroyed many of the fallen trees, it also may be burning seeds, Hibbard said. That means forestry officials may have to go in later and plant new seeds, she said.

In many forest fires, particularly slow-burning fires, animals may flee the area for safety, Hibbard said. Some animals, however, do stay.

"Some of them don't run away," she said. "People think of Bambi all the time and animals running away from fire."

Some animals will forage at the fire's edge, and some insects may be attracted to the smoke and might mate at the fire's edge, she said. Other insects may come to feed on other insects.

Firefighters have not reported encountering burned animal remains or seeing animals injured by the fires, she said. Also, there have been no documented cases of an entire animal population destroyed by fire. By the end of this year, with help from sufficient rainfall the Dismal Swamp refuge could be regenerated, Hibbard said.

According to reports from fire officials fighting the Pocosin refuge wildfire, in Hyde County, bears and other animals have been spotted wandering into residential areas. But that's not the case in the Dismal Swamp fire, Hibbard said. She estimated the reason for that is because the Dismal Swamp fire is surrounded by more refuge land which is acting as a buffer to residential areas, whereas the Pocosin fire is not.

"I think part of the reason is that there's enough fringe around the fire that's refuge ... they're not right on the edge of residential areas," Hibbard said.

Firefighters have reported seeing bears and deer, as well as a variety of poisonous snakes in both wildlife refuges.

According to a news release from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, most animals escape fires. A biologist with the commission, Tommy Hughes, said wildfires occur regularly on the East coast and the land typically recovers.

"But this is a natural occurrence on the East coast, and the land responds," he said. "It's not terrible for the wildlife."