Wildlife in the Whirlwinds
By Juliana Smith
H
urricane season strikes the eastern
seaboard of the United States every
summer, and guess what? We are
in it right now. The official “season”
reportedly begins in June and runs through November,
but as we here on the East Coast know, storms can arrive
as early as April. Wildlife also experiences the forces we
humans contend with, and they do it without our fancy
Doppler-radar-reading meteorologists.
When a hurricane is coming to Kiawah Island,
native critters can sense drops in both air and water
pressure. They also note other signs that trouble is nigh,
for example, salinity changes in saltwater habitats and
hastening winds. Some creatures react to these signals
by vacating the area as quickly as they can, but many are
forced to ride out the storm on the Island and hope for
the best—as some of us also decide to do. Regardless of
the tactic, each animal has a survival plan that’s enacted
when Mother Nature sounds the alarm.
Consider first the animals that do not have the
option to evacuate our Island. Some of them, like
oysters, sponges, and corals, are locked into place, so
the approach of a big storm isn’t something they can do
anything about except to hang on tight. The sea-faring
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Photo by Diane Supple