Prescribed burning is now widely used in ecosystems in Mediterranean regions as an efficient management practice to reduce both the quantities of fuel biomass and the fire frequency, seasonality, intensity and size. The regime of prescribed burning should be adapted to maintain the biological diversity and impact on population dynamics must be determined. We studied the effect of pescribed burning on the capture and survival rates of a population of small mammals, the wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) in the Mediterranean region of Torderes, France. To this end, we used a rectangular trapping quadrat measuring 300 x 225 m2, in which 1366 individuals were captured and marked over a total of 18 trapping sessions (May 1991-June 1996). Several prescribed fires were ignited between the fifth and sixth trapping sessions. These multiple fires resulted in a partial burning of the study site, which left a number of small patches of vegetation intact. To estimate the influence of this prescribed burning on capture and survival rates of the wood mouse, the Cormack-Jolly-Seber model Fs+2. This model did not demonstrate any significant change in survival rates after the prescribed fires, probably because the fire left behind small patches of vegetation and the wood mouse can quickly recolonize the study site. Our result is in accordance with other studies, which found little impact of prescribed burning on survival rates and abundance in animal populations. © 2002 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.