Prior to the advent of GPS, if you wanted to answer a question like “what do birds actually do in a hurricane?” you’d have to seriously jeopardize the safety of a grad student, but a new study that tracked 18 pelicans as they hunkered down for Hurricane Irma in 2017 and Florence and Michael in 2018 now gives us a pretty good idea. During the periods of the lowest pressure and highest winds, the birds tended to hide behind barrier islands and highway overpasses, or chilled out in estuaries. This meant going hungry for a few days, but the only evidence that a bird died was one GPS tracker going dark during Florence.
Jenny Howard, Hakai Magazine
Jenny Howard, Hakai Magazine