Wildlife preparation clues

[CentralFlGal]

Time for a strange question: Does anyone have any "old wives tales" or stories that point out peculiar behavior in local wildlife prior to a major storm? Any tell-tale signs of mother nature starting to hunker down that used to be taken as advice?

Granted, we have satellite imagery now to guide us, but I've always wondered about this. Like if anyone was privvy to what was about to occur in Okeechobee back in 1928 based on what was being observed around them.

[beenthru6]

No wives tales for you, but here are some examples of what happened before the Florida canes last year.
As hurricane Charley was a few hours from the Caloosahatchie River, eight tagged sharks being monitored by biologists suddenly bolted from the estuary to the open ocean.
In Gainesville at an experimental rainforest, the butterflies wedged themselves under rocks and hid in hollows of trees.
The migratory birds delayed heading south into Florida until it was safe.
animals seem to have a built in weather sensor that lets them know when they are in danger. Pretty cool.

[CentralFlGal]

Wow. Thanks! I'm going to look into these further and maybe pay more attention to animal behavior this year. It's fascinating how they know without the aid of our modern marvels of technology.

An interesting tidbit I ran across while researching the Calusa Indians of SW Florida was that they planted mangroves to protect against hurricane force winds rather than large, inflexible trees. 2004's Charley headed inland right over the center of this old civilization's 'headquarters'.

[CajunMama]

Next time you have any kind of storm coming through, listen for the birds. I've noticed just with a thunderstorm the birds are nowhere to be found or heard. I'm don't remember for any of the hurricanes if the birds were silent or not...I was too busy preparing!

[drudd1]

The birds definately dissapeared here just before Charlie hit. My daughter was the first to notice it. In addition, our local squirrel population also vanished. While the squirrels were back in action in short order, we didn't have a bird anywhere in sight until well after the third cane went through.

[Persepone]

Along CT, MA, NH coasts (and inland) I've noticed that the seagulls go far inland before hurricanes, Nor'easters, etc. When you see seagulls in towns like Hartford, CT, on inland NH (e.g., around Nashua, NH, Lowell, etc.) something really bad is coming It sort of freaks you out when you see them even 5-10 miles inland--but when it's a much bigger distance, you know something is definitely up! I've only seen this three times I can think of (in/near the 3 cities listed) but each time it was just before a serious storm!

And even when you do see the gulls near the coast, they aren't where you usually see them. We live in the "woods" and about as far from the shore as you can on Cape Cod (e.g., in the middle and on high ground) and we've had gulls in our yard, sitting on our roof, etc. before a couple of bad storms and it is sort of freaky. The other birds, suqirrels, etc. are all in hiding somewhere--or perhaps they are afraid of the gulls.

[alicia-w]

http://students.ou.edu/C/Beverly.J.Carter-1/Animalpre.html

Here's a site about weather proverbs and animals....

[baygirl_1]

Well, my sister lives in the south part of Mobile County. Last summer, she started having a terrible time with ants at her house-- more so than in the past couple years (as she remembers). She was complaining about it so much during August-- they were getting into her pantry and the bathrooms and the dog's food. Then, Ivan hit last September.
Also, our dog started acting strange as soon as Ivan was in the Gulf. He was acting like he does when there's a thunderstorm: staying underfoot and sticking to each of us like glue.
Coincidences? Maybe....

[CentralFlGal]

Thanks, everyone! It truly is amazing how animals react to impending situations. Perhaps it has something to do with the drop in pressure as they are much more sensitive to it than us humans are (although a decent sinus problem can sometimes clue you in )

I can do without the ants though...

[CentralFlGal]

Not so much animal signs, but in the same category as the Calusa/mangrove item. I stumbled across this while searching Florida Keys wildlife (and stories of 9-pound African Gambian rats - eeeww):

Can the trees predict 'canes?

By Jessica Machetta jmachetta@keynoter.com
Posted-Friday, June 3, 2005 7:09 PM EDT

[...]the old-time Conchs used to say if the foliage on the trees was very thick in early summer, it meant the trees "knew" there would not be a lot of hurricanes, but if the trees were sparse in foliage, an active season was to be expected.

http://www.keynoter.com/articles/2005/06/03/news/news02.txt

Story centers on the controversial wet/dry May hurricane correlation, but I found myself a neat old wives' tale