Where do the animals go in a hurricane

I gathered my family and packed up a few essentials, and we hit the road, leaving the Tampa Bay area to seek safer ground as Hurricane Milton came bearing down. But what about our fur covered and feathered friends?

Can animals detect a hurricane

Even without radar and complicated models, animals often know when inclement weather is approaching. For example, some birds are able to pick up on changes in barometric pressure and infrared radiation that may signal them to seek cover or even start an early migration. But overall birds are the most at risk of suffering harm from hurricanes. They don’t have many places to seek shelter and are easily tossed around in high winds without much protection on their bodies. 

Dolphins, sharks, sea turtles and other marine animals can detect changes in pressure, water temperature, salinity and currents. So when a hurricane is approaching the Florida coast, these animals can often react with plenty of time to avoid being stranded onshore by forceful waves. Marine scientists have a theory that dolphins and whales can detect the salinity change that happens when outer bands bring heavy freshwater rain to an area. Since they must surface to breathe they are likely to swim far away to where salinity levels are normal and wait out the storm. Like an early warning system this ability to detect salinity changes may save their lives. Meanwhile, sea turtle nests don’t fare as well, erosion from bad weather often exposes turtle eggs to the elements and predators. Luckily for the sea turtles, hatching season is typically May through October, so in the case of Hurricane Milton, most sea turtles have already hatched. Large slow moving manatees don’t fare as well either. Thirteen of these gentle giants were reported stranded when Hurricane Irma came up the Gulf Coast in 2017.

What animals suffer the most in a hurricane

Slow moving fish and shellfish also have a more difficult time avoiding harm during these storms. Strong undercurrents can disrupt shallow seabeds, shifting sands and causing harm to the animals that live there. Coral, which is also a type of animal, doesn’t have the ability to outrun a storm or shift its location. Unfortunately coral reefs, while sturdy, can suffer the most damage when it comes to a hurricane. And in Florida many of our iconic corals like elkhorn and staghorn corals are already fighting for survival from warming water temperatures. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew was responsible for killing hundreds of millions of fish in the Bahamas, Florida and Louisiana. It landed as a Category 5 and is still one of the strongest storms on record to hit the eastern United States.

On land, animals that live in trees or rely on them for food are the most affected during a storm. These habitats often suffer more destruction than lower lying areas and offer the least amount of protection. Birds who nest in trees or inside trunks often die when those trees are brought down in high winds. 

Animals that can burrow or hide away in the underbrush have a much better survival rate. Racoons and scavenger animals that live on the forest floor often take advantage of the newly created chaos of a storm and root out new food sources in the debris.

Threats after the storm

Unfortunately the largest threat that animals face from severe storms is related to human activity after the storm has passed. Debris from housing and businesses can destroy wildlife habitats and pollution from facilities that produce toxic waste like power plants and fertilizer factories can overflow into our waterways and wetlands during a storm. It can take weeks or months to cleanup the problem, and pull resources away from communities that are trying to recover. 

Improving the quality of our water overall and reducing the pollution we produce will reduce these risks. Our actions to curb pollution and leave wild spaces intact could protect much of our wildlife and make our resources more resilient in weather emergencies like the one southwest Florida is facing now.