http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=6648642
The Tornado's Other Victims
June 12, 2007
By Jeff Alexander
In recent days we've reported about how remarkable it was that no person was seriously hurt in the tornado that swept from Langlade to Oconto counties last week -- what the Department of Natural Resources has dubbed the "Quad County Tornado."
But that wasn't the case for many farm animals, including horses, chickens, and ducks. What isn't determined -- and may never be -- is the impact to the wildlife along that 36-mile stretch torn up by the tornado.
As curator of the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary in Green Bay, Mike Reed has already seen more than 1,000 wild birds and animals this spring brought in by the public, in need of attention. He can't help but think about all the birds and animals caught in the tornado's path up to a mile wide.
"All those nesting birds, eagle's nests, and heron rookeries, all the little song birds, this is the big time of year when they're all building their nests. They're really impacted major by a storm like that," Reed says.
And mammals, too. The day after the storm, our camera captured a big black bear wandering around a field next to a forest area leveled by the twister.
"The bears, the deer, they all have trails. If you've ever hunted, you know there's game trails through the woods and that's how they orient themselves. And now if there's trees down all over across the trails and nothing looks familiar any more, it can be pretty confusing for them if they survived the storm," says Reed.
Unlike other natural disasters like tsunamis and earthquakes, which scientists speculate most animals can sense coming, Reed feels tornadoes give animals less time to get out of the way.
"When it's random like a tornado, move to where? And so fast? And so fast, I don't think animals can react fast enough to things like tornadoes."
Reed says he wouldn't be surprised to hear about bears raiding nearby cabins and bird feeders until they re-establish familiar feeding areas.
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