Hurricanes Irma and Maria temporarily altered choruses of land and sea animals

Date:  February 15, 2018

Source:  American Geophysical Union

Summary:

Audio recordings of Hurricanes Irma and Maria's passage over Puerto Rico document how the calls of coastal critters changed in response to the deadly storms. The hurricanes caused a major disruption in the acoustic activity of snapping shrimp, a reduction in insect and bird sounds, and potentially an intensification of fish choruses, according to new research.

     

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Conservationists See a Hurricane Risk: Florida’s Exotic Pets Could Escape - via Herp Digest

By Livia Albeck-Ripka, New York Times, 9/8/17

Some conservationists worry that exotic species like the Nile crocodile, left, could escape during Hurricane Irma. The number of Burmese python, right, boomed in Florida after Hurricane Andrew destroyed a reptile breeding warehouse in 1992.Credit

Left, Joe Wasilewski/Associated Press; right, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; photo illustration by The New York Ti

When Hurricane Andrew battered South Florida in 1992, conservationists say, a slithering, voracious species escaped a breeding facility and made its way toward Everglades National Park. There, the Burmese python, originally from Southeast Asia, would feast on raccoons, eggs and deer, multiplying into the tens of thousands until it had ravaged the ecosystem. 

Now, with Hurricane Irma fast approaching Florida, wildlife organizations are concerned that other nonnative species could be unleashed in the state. There are more than 1,200 species of reptiles and amphibians kept in captivity in Florida, according to the United States Association of Reptile Keepers. Many of them, like the veiled chameleon, Mexican spinytail iguana and Javan file snake, are nonnative.    

“You’ve got a lot of exotic pet breeders down in South Florida,” said Bruce Stein, associate vice president for conservation science at the National Wildlife Federation. “The question is: What’s next?”

There is no definitive proof that Hurricane Andrew was responsible for the invasion of the Burmese python, which was first spotted in the Everglades in the 1980s. Exotic pets are frequently released in the wild by their owners. But after a reptile breeding warehouse was destroyed in the 1992 hurricane, the python population boomed.

Dr. Stein said he feared that amid the chaos of a powerful hurricane, amphibians and reptiles like the “extremely aggressive” Nile crocodile could break loose from breeding centers and private collections. “It’s not inconceivable that we have a repeat of what truly is an ecological disaster in the Everglades,” he said. “It’s a ‘black swan’ event: low probability, high risk.”

Florida, with its muggy, swamp-like conditions, has long been a hub for exotic breeding. More wildlife shipments pass through Miami’s ports than anywhere else in the country except New York and Los Angeles. Once a year, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission organizes an amnesty pet drop-off: Keepers can give up their king cobras, Komodo dragons and other exotic species, no questions asked.

Commercial keepers need a permit for certain nonnative species. Those who apply must submit a disaster plan to the wildlife commission, but they create the plan themselves. “It’s really just for their own use,” said Gaby Vega, a spokeswoman for the commission’s Captive Wildlife Office.

In an evacuation, the reptile keeper’s association advises slipping snakes into a bag and putting the bag, tied closed, inside a crate. Owners can take the crate with them or anchor it to the ground with a rope, so that the snake doesn’t drown or float away.

“To have something happen similar to what happened with Burmese python, that’s extremely unlikely,” said Phil Goss, the association’s president. “We only advocate for responsible keeping.”

Mike Van Nostrand, who owns Strictly Reptiles, a reptile wholesaler and breeder in Hollywood, Fla., said he wasn’t worried about the 10,000 animals inside his shop, many of which are exotic. “I don’t have a plan,” he said. “My building is a fortress. It isn’t going anywhere.”

Tony Daly-Crews, who keeps about 70 animals, lives in Jacksonville, which is expecting only a Category 2 or 3 storm. He said he would be bagging, crating and locking his eastern diamondback rattlesnakes inside his breeding facility. Had the forecast called for a Category 4 or 5 hurricane, he said he would have tried to evacuate his home. (On Tuesday, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services waived regulations that restricted interstate reptile travel.)

Conservationists also worry about other types of animals. Peter Jenkins, president of the Center for Invasive Species Prevention, said nonnative tropical fish could enter waterways from breeding ponds during storm surges.

Hurricane Andrew nearly wiped out the Schaus swallowtail butterfly, a native species that lives only in the Florida Keys. An estimated 350 butterflies remain today, and Dr. Stein said they were at risk again from Hurricane Irma

Low-lying islands, like Bahia Honda State Park, located in the Keys, were also at risk, Dr. Stein said. He described them as harboring “an extraordinary number” of rare and endangered species and “ecologically precious” ecosystems.

Baby red squirrels saved from Hurricane Katia

The five week-old squirrels were found in the aftermath of the gale-force winds that hit the UK last week, with their mother nowhere to be seen.

They were taken to a veterinary surgery in Alnwick before being delivered to the animal welfare centre at Ulgham near Morpeth, where volunteers now feed them goat's milk every three hours and will continue to look after them through winter.

Sanctuary owner Kim Olson said: "At this time of year the squirrels would be collecting food for winter but even if we released them in November they wouldn't have enough time.

"We're planning to release them gradually back into the wild next spring at our special unit, which is at a secret location in Northumberland."

The family-run sanctuary, which cares for unwanted pets and farm animals as well as injured wildlife, was established by Mrs Olson and her husband in 1993.

She said: "We're probably the largest animal sanctuary in the whole of the North East. We look after so much wildlife; we've got a badger cub, young foxes and injured birds of prey."

With running costs totalling £70,000 a year proving tougher and tougher to meet, the Olsens depend on public donations to care for unwanted or injured animals that are brought in to them.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/8778720/Baby-red-squirrels-saved-from-Hurricane-Katia.html

AN ILL WIND BLOWS IN RARE VISITORS

HURRICANE Katia followed in the spiteful footsteps of her destructive sister Irene when she hit Britain last week.

Loss of life and an estimated £100million damage bill were the horrendous legacy of her 70mph wrath as she spiralled across the Atlantic and hit the north of Britain with a vengeance.

Considering all the misery Katia caused it seems trite to look upon one of the worst cyclonic events in recent years in a positive way. Yet the storms that caused so much destruction in Northern Ireland, Scotland and the north of England produced a bountiful harvest of birding ‘windfalls’.

The eight buff-breasted sandpipers tiptoeing on the grassy sward on the Isles of Scilly and several pectoral sandpipers across the archipelago were testament to the rarity-producing capabilities of cyclonic conditions.

These North American shorebirds would have been en route from the tundras of northern Canada to the South American pampas when they were blown off course.

The thought of these delicate birds each weighing less than three ounces surviving Katia’s swirling winds and torrential rains is hard to comprehend.

Photographer Martin Goodey’s series of close-up shots show the ‘buffies’ made landfall without too much damage.

As many as 32 buff-breasted sandpipers have been recorded in the British Isles these past few days, harking back to a spell in the mid-Seventies when dozens were delivered to our side of the pond during a series of windy autumns.

In 1977 a total of 15 birds were seen on the island of St Mary’s, a precursor to its removal from the list of British rarities.

Although most buff-breasted sandpipers fly through the central US states on their autumn migration, a sizeable percentage of the population takes a route that sweeps them far out into the Atlantic.

This puts them at risk of being blown off course.

The fact that sightings of buff-breasted sandpipers don’t have to be ratified by the British Birds Rarities Committee contrasts bizarrely with the bird’s global conservation status as near-threatened.

Buff-breasted sandpipers have the ignominious reputation of almost following the flight path of the Eskimo curlew and passenger pigeon, two North American birds extirpated by forces in their own way as destructive as Katia and Irene.

Hunting by American settlers in the late 19th-century saw the sandpipers’ numbers crash from millions to the point of extinction.

Today’s population is estimated at 15,000 and because it is seldom seen on America’s eastern seaboard, there are stories of US birders travelling to Britain to see it.

Two other rare American shorebirds also put in an appearance in the wake of Katia, a greater yellowlegs in Cornwall and a sandpiper on Scilly. A presumed escaped azure tit is causing excitement after turning up in a garden in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire
By Stuart Winter.


http://www.express.co.uk/blogs/post/268/blog/2011/09/18/272128/An-ill-wind-blows-in-rare-visitors