Toad Orgies, Underwater AC, and Other Stories From the Storm
Every few years, a few weeks after a tropical storm, Steve Johnson, a herpetology professor at the University of Florida in Gainesville, gets inundated with calls and emails about an invasion of juvenile toads. They appear out of nowhere and infest roads and people’s garages. And just as swiftly as they come, they disperse. The toads, it appears, wait for the storm to multiply.
Most living entities flee the wrath of a storm, and for good reason. Hurricanes can decimate ecosystems, destroy habitats, and cause loss of life. But as counter-intuitive as it might seem, a few members of the animal kingdom benefit from storms, directly and indirectly.
