Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogle bomb here. When Hurricane Florence hit the East
Speaker 1: coast of the United States in September eighteen, it caused
Speaker 1: great damage to life and livelihood in North Carolina. Flooding
Speaker 1: killed many farm animals estimates range in the millions, but
Speaker 1: not all animals in the area were lost to the storm.
Speaker 1: For almost five centuries, herds of feral horses have lived
Speaker 1: on the tar Heel States Barrier Islands, thought to be
Speaker 1: descended from mustangs brought over by Spanish explorers. These outer
Speaker 1: Banks equines are beloved by the community and enjoy government protections,
Speaker 1: and it turns out they're also quite storm savvy. Census
Speaker 1: has taken after Hurricane Florence showed that while some individuals
Speaker 1: remain unaccounted for, a large majority of these horses did
Speaker 1: weather the storm. Why did the Barrier Island Why did
Speaker 1: these Barrier Islands horses survive Florence when so many farm
Speaker 1: animals perished, And how to other animal species normally react
Speaker 1: to hurricanes. More than one hundred of North Carolina's free
Speaker 1: roaming beach horses live on Cape Lookout National Seashore, A
Speaker 1: preserve encompassing three hundred different barrier islands. Florence was by
Speaker 1: no means their first rodeo when it comes to major hurricanes.
Speaker 1: As park biologists Sue Stuska reminded the Associated Press, the
Speaker 1: horses have been riding out tempests for hundreds of years,
Speaker 1: Well attuned two changes in the weather. They instinctively seek
Speaker 1: out high ground during floods and take refuge in thickly
Speaker 1: vegetated areas once the winds get violent. Deaths can occur
Speaker 1: during some strong storms, but the wild herds of the
Speaker 1: outer Banks enjoy a high overall survival rate. Unfortunately, many
Speaker 1: animal populations cannot make the same claim. Hurricanes and the
Speaker 1: floods they produce are notoriously hard on coast hugging shrimp, crabs,
Speaker 1: and oysters. The invertebrates have evolved to live in waters
Speaker 1: with specific salinity levels. When runoff from hurricane generated floods
Speaker 1: pours into bays and estuaries, the percentage of salt in
Speaker 1: the water goes down. That decrease often ends up killing
Speaker 1: scores of oysters, shrimp, and other sea dwelling organisms. Texas
Speaker 1: fishermen witness to this problem firsthand after Hurricane Harvey did
Speaker 1: a number on delicate Gulf coast ecosystems. There are, however,
Speaker 1: marine creatures who proactively steer clear of hurricanes. Sharks can
Speaker 1: pick up on pressure changes in the water column and
Speaker 1: detect water borne vibrations using a network of canals and
Speaker 1: pores embedded in their skin. This same system alerts them
Speaker 1: to oncoming storms. Barometric air pressure drops shortly before hurricane
Speaker 1: or tropical storm hits. Upon sensing this, young black tip sharks,
Speaker 1: who normally live in shallow bays, will flee into the
Speaker 1: relative safety of deep offshore waters. They then come back
Speaker 1: after the tempest passes. Going deep as a fine tactic
Speaker 1: for sharks, but it's not an option for swimming mammals
Speaker 1: like dolphins or sea turtles, who must surface in order
Speaker 1: to breathe. It's also less than ideal for the inhabitants
Speaker 1: of lakes, swamps, and river systems. Alligators often drown or
Speaker 1: are killed by flying debris during storm searches. To stay safe,
Speaker 1: they may clamber onto driveways and backyard porches that manage
Speaker 1: to remain above the water level, much to the chagrin
Speaker 1: of some homeowners, above the heads of gaiters and other
Speaker 1: ground dwelling creatures are boreal squirrels face their own set
Speaker 1: of problems. High speed hurricane winds are liable to strip
Speaker 1: trees of their nuts, imperiling the mammal's food supply. Furthermore,
Speaker 1: powerful storms blow baby squirrels out of their parents tree
Speaker 1: based nests. Hurricane Irene saddled wildlife rehabilitation groups with hundreds
Speaker 1: of orphaned newborn squirrels who had been evicted from their nests,
Speaker 1: and when Hurricane Hugo leveled South Carolina forests, the natural
Speaker 1: disaster almost wiped out the world's largest population of endangered
Speaker 1: red cocketed woodpeckers, a species dependent on living pines. Birds
Speaker 1: respond to hurricanes in lots of different ways. The white
Speaker 1: threaded sparrow, for instance, keeps tabs on barometric pressure and
Speaker 1: will postpone its fall or spring migration to avoid oncoming
Speaker 1: storms if necessary. Many av species take on the exhausting
Speaker 1: challenge of flying directly into the eye of a hurricane
Speaker 1: and then keeping pace with it as the tempest gradually
Speaker 1: dies down. Understandably, some birds that attempt this are overcome
Speaker 1: by fatigue before the storm subsides, and living in captivity
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily safeguard beasts against the ravages of natural disasters.
Speaker 1: Despite the valiant efforts of farmers across North Carolina, the
Speaker 1: state lost millions of livestock animals to Hurricane Florence. Blocked roads,
Speaker 1: flooded barns, power failures, and broken dams hindered rescue efforts.
Speaker 1: If there's a silver lining to be found here, it's
Speaker 1: the fact that certain animals have turned storms like Hurricane
Speaker 1: Florence into opportunities. Consider the Eastern spade foot toad. This
Speaker 1: secret of amphibian likes to breed in temporary ponds where
Speaker 1: fish and other aquatic predators can't easily catch it. Such
Speaker 1: short lived bodies of water become common after heavy rains.
Speaker 1: For that very reason, the toads reproduce like crazy in
Speaker 1: the wake of hurricanes at a time when amphibian population
Speaker 1: sans are declining all over the world. That's an encouraging
Speaker 1: thing to see. Also, hurricanes may be forcing reptiles to
Speaker 1: get a grip. Literally animals are a group of New
Speaker 1: World lizards who climb walls with adhesive TOPADSEN study argued
Speaker 1: that one species might be evolving shorter hind legs and
Speaker 1: longer topads. This body plan could make it easier for
Speaker 1: the lizards to cling onto tree limbs while hurricane force
Speaker 1: winds are blowing. Today's episode was written by Mark Fancini
Speaker 1: and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and
Speaker 1: lots of other weathered topics, visit our home planet, hows
Speaker 1: to works dot com.