People living on Sanibel and Captiva weren鈥檛 the only ones driven from their homes by Hurricane Ian鈥檚 churning storm surge.
Wildlife, amphibians and birds were displaced. Some species have come back fine, others are struggling to survive while others yet remain missing-in-action.
Saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico inundated Sanibel鈥檚 fresh-water system turning it brackish. Many animals and amphibians don鈥檛 tolerate salt, said Chris Lechowicz, director of wildlife and habitat management for Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Association.
鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be a few years before we really get an idea of how everything did,鈥� he said. 鈥淛ust because something survived immediately after the hurricane does not mean that it is going to be here a year later.鈥�
Sanibel only had one heavy rain after Hurricane Ian before going into the dry season and the current rainy season has been anything but rainy. Lechowicz was hoping heavy rainfall would wash away the brackish water.
鈥淭he outlook of some of these species is still unknown, most of the areas on the island are still pretty brackish,鈥� he said.
Impounded lakes, those dug for home communities and have nowhere to flow to, were flourishing with freshwater fish, snakes, turtles and other amphibians, but are highly brackish now and the fish are gone, Lechowicz said.
鈥淲e have a lot of residents who are asking us when it will become fresh again and that鈥檚 a big unknown,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f it dries up, the salt still stays there.
鈥淚t might not be how it was for a very long time. It will take lots of rainfall, flooding that way, getting some of that water out to getting it to change. It鈥檚 not an overnight fix.鈥�
Lechowicz returned to Sanibel four days after the storm, to silence.
The first thing he saw were iguanas, lots of them.
鈥淚t was like they were waiting for this their whole lives,鈥� he said, 鈥淭hey took over the island.鈥�
The second thing he saw were coyotes. Larger animals like coyotes and bobcats did OK, he said.
Alligators
Much of the vegetation where alligators hide died after the hurricane, so alligators became visible. They also went hunting for food because the fish, snakes and turtles died in the brackish water.
鈥淎lligators didn鈥檛 have a lot of food sources for a while,鈥� Lechowicz said.
鈥淚鈥檓 not sure how that鈥檚 going now, but a lot of the vegetation has grown back so people aren鈥檛 seeing as many as they were right after the hurricane.鈥�
Birds
The first survey after the storm, in October, found fewer birds, but that was to be expected, said Audrey Albrecht, shorebird biologist for the conservation association.
鈥淭hat didn鈥檛 mean the birds were dead, it just means they went somewhere else,鈥� she said.
Survey numbers were back to normal by December, she said.
The 10 eagle nests the conversancy monitored were destroyed but nine pairs of eagles rebuilt nests, she said.
Fish
Some of the small fish, like mosquito fish, have been spotted and Lechowicz is confident they will bounce back. He鈥檚 not as confident about the game fish like bluegill, sun fish and large-mouth bass. They were brought to the island in the 1960s so people would have freshwater fish to catch.
鈥淲e have not seen any of these game fish since the hurricane,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very possible that we may have lost them.鈥�
Gopher tortoises
The conservation association did a gopher tortoise survey in January and found a 30 percent loss on four properties and almost a 100 percent loss on another.
The property with no active burrows was near the beach, Lechowicz said.
He said some of the tortoises probably drowned when they got trapped in their burrows.
He expects the number of burrows will go up when they do the survey again in October.
Box turtles
鈥淏ox turtles did amazing,鈥� he said.
Storm surge swept away the contents of condos along the beach, but the box turtle, living near the condos survived.
鈥淭he condos are gone, and the turtles didn鈥檛 move,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey dug the front half of their shells into the sand and just held on.鈥�
All the turtles that the conservation association tagged with radios are accounted for, he said.
One box turtle did go for a ride. It was found in the Cape Coral canal system a month after the hurricane, he said.
The missing
The conservation association lists six species as missing, two frog species, pig frog and green tree; two mammals, the Virginia opossum and nine-banded armadillo; one snake, the Florida brown snake and one native lizard, the ground skink.
Lechowicz thinks the green frog survived, but he hasn鈥檛 been able to verify it yet.
The pig frog is the equivalent of a Southern bull frog. They aren鈥檛 native to Sanibel.
鈥淭hose are a freshwater frog; they don鈥檛 take to saltwater very well. We haven鈥檛 heard one of those since,鈥� he said.
The missing opossums are a mystery, Lechowicz said, because they are like raccoons, which survived the storm.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not sure why because they could have gone up in the trees like raccoons did. So, we don鈥檛 have an explanation on why we haven鈥檛 seen them yet,鈥� he said.
The missing armadillos dig burrows and storm surge probably filled up the burrows and they drowned, he said.
Lechowicz thinks the Florida brown snake will show up in the next year. It鈥檚 an animal you don鈥檛 go looking for because they are hard to find.
The ground skink is the rarest lizard on the island, he said. He hasn鈥檛 seen one since the storm.
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