Hurricane Ian: Did sharks leave Southwest Florida waters as they did during Hurricane Charley

Florida is known for its phenomenal wildlife, for the birds and beasts that comb our swamps and roam our beautiful shores.

Sometimes the beauty gets disrupted, like it did last month when Hurricane Ian plowed into Southwest Florida as a near Category-5 storm.

This region has arguably the most vast array of wildlife, ranging from the endangered Florida panther to the invasive Burmese python.

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But now the tree canapes and plants (the name Florida is based on the word flora) are all brown and twisted, torn and ripped.

So what exactly happened to all the beautiful and bountiful animals?

Some animals, such as sharks, may have left the area altogether before Ian made landfall. Others, such as manatees, may have been stranded as Ian pulled water from the rivers and bays.

The good news is that these critters have evolved to deal with the impacts of tropical storms and hurricanes over the course of thousands of years, scientists say.

Some species produce offspring several times a year. That way if a storm hits, there will still be another cycle of young during that same year.

Sharks, dolphins often flee

Tagged sharks from Sarasota south to San Carlos Bay left the Southwest Florida coast about 24 hours before Hurricane Charley made landfall in 2004. The data showed that the same sharks returned about 24 hours after Charley hit.

"They had tagged sharks of several species in Pine Island Sound, Matlacha Pass and San Carlos Bay and they were able to look at the data after it passed, and the sharks left just before the storm hit and then came back just after," said Jim Beever, a former state fish and wildlife biologist.

Research from the University of Miami shows a similar response in sharks.

Beever said dolphins tend to avoid the storm as it comes in and then quickly move back into the bays and rivers.

West Indian manatees face stranding

The West Indian manatee, or sea cow, also face challenges from tropical storms and hurricanes.

Thousands of these gentle and threatened herbivores ply Florida's shallow waters, but they can get stuck during strong storms.

"We have not had strandings related to the storm in the Sarasota area, and in the Fort Myers area the focus is still on the people aspect rather than the animal aspect," said Stephanie Kettle, spokeswoman for Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium in Sarasota. "A thing that happened with Irma, Tampa Bay emptied out and sometimes manatees get left out like that. But I don't know if there are any strandings in your area."

Sea turtle eggs buried

Various species of sea turtle can be hit hard by large hurricanes as the storms can send 15 feet or more of storm surge over the barrier islands on which the turtles nest.

That floods the nests and destroys any would-be hatchlings buried under sand.

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But the impacts can vary depending on the time of year that the storm hits.

"Luckily we were at the tale end of sea turtle nesting season," Kettle said. "We only had about 100 nests left in an area of 35 miles that we monitor. And about 10 to 15 of those got washed out. So in terms of it coming at the end of the season, it's better than July, when we would have 1,000 nests."

Female sea turtles nest several times during the summer months, which coincide with hurricane season.

To help better their odds at survival, the turtles adapted by producing multiple nests in cycles.

"A lot of these species have been nesting in Florida and dealing with hurricanes and big storms as long as they've been around," Kettle said. "That's part of their reproductive strategy, to produce three or four times in a year, so that if one gets hit then there's another period of time to lay eggs. That combats the natural threats."

Mystery of the bald eagle

Bald eagles are another prominent Florida species that can be impacted by big storms.

The famous Southwest Florida Eagle Cam is down, although we don't know at this point if it's functional or just off.

"Right now nobody has an idea what happened to the eagle trees here, but that will come," Beever said. "FWC will do a count later to see how many survived of the known territories.

Beever said Lee County is home to about 35 breeding pairs of bald eagles.

Squirrels, owls, songbirds, practically any animal that lives along the coast can be impacted by a hurricane.

"Some squirrels survived and some didn’t," Beever said. "They take refuge in their nest, but if that tree falls and crushes them, they’re dead. But all the birds we expect to see are back, but I don’t hear owls. But that could be because of the loss of tall trees."

Don't bury a burrowing owls with debris

Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife vice president Pascha Donaldson said she isn't sure how many of the Cape's 3,500 or burrowing owls fared during the storm.

"The reports are that they've come back," Donaldson said. "The big thing is for people dumping trash. Please don't put your debris on top of them."

Many of the posts people place in the ground for owls to use in communities like Cape Coral are gone, but fortunately it's not nesting season.

"All the PVC is down and the other concern is all the wonderful workers who are coming down and parking and don't know about the owls or the tortoises," she said.

Burrowing owls will start making their nests soon.

"I'm getting reports that owls are showing up and for every report people say I see one but there were three," Donaldson said. "They start making their nest in November and December, so there's time. Hopefully this mess will be cleaned up by then and they can dig new nests."

Connect with this reporter: @ChadEugene on Twitter. 

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Hurricane Ian: Florida's famous sharks, manatees, eagles unaccounted for