Feline Friday comes a little early this week.
At least for starters, this can’t be one of those simple, happy posts (except for a little bit of unrelated brightness at the end).
Hurricane Ian hit Florida hard this week, and I felt it up here in Oregon because I knew that there were bobcats on Sanibel Island.
2020:
2022:
It’s unlikely that any are left. The island got pounded yesterday.
December 2021:
Today (September 29th):
People are the priority here, and the news could be grim after searches are completed.
That is the main thing, but for this post I will just focus on the wild cats.
The island might have been submerged during Ian. The mainland isn’t far away, but if that causeway couldn’t withstand the seas, it’s unlikely bobcats could swim across to more solid ground
My heart aches for all the people this storm has hurt, but staying on topic here, a similar question exists about bobcats, Florida panthers, and all other forms of animal and plant life in the Charlotte Harbor area, where Hurricane Ian made landfall.
2018:
Port Charlotte, yesterday evening:
The cats and other wildlife probably are (or were) most numerous in the Charlotte Harbor Estuary, and of course there is little video online yet of Ian’s effects on that uninhabited area.
This is awful, all around. But life would not exist on Earth today if it hadn’t always found a way through such events — and much worse ones, too.
In coming weeks and months, wildlife experts will also be conducting searches, and other studies; and the bobcats and panthers, if I know cats, will gradually return.
As part of my interest in how cats evolved, I’ll document that process in this post below, from the perspective of whatever online news and press releases (and eventually research papers) become available.
But for now, and to close on a brighter note:
Per note at YouTube, these Montanans took them all home, cleaned them up, and tried to find good homes for them. ❤
Featured image: Daniel Korzeniewski/Shutterstock
Flight To Wonder 