There are many miracles in the animal realm, and we still don’t fully understand them. How certain animals appear to anticipate an earthquake or tsunami before it occurs is one conundrum that has baffled people for years.
What we currently know is as follows:
Sheep and goats are observed departing the slopes.
There are frequently accounts of wild animals leaving the area well in advance of an earthquake or volcanic eruption. Chinese academics were adamant that animals could foretell catastrophic disasters more than 3,000 years ago.
They claimed to be able to identify early warning indicators of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions by closely watching the behaviour of both domestic and wild animals, including fish, reptiles, birds, mammals, and even insects. They noted that these indicators can show up hours, days, or even weeks before a calamity occurred.
Researchers noticed animals responding hours before the events of the 2012–2014 eruptions of Mount Etna and the 2016–2017 earthquakes in central Italy.
In the hours preceding an earthquake, the researchers discovered that animals, such as dogs, sheep, and cows, showed higher-than-normal activity levels, with those nearest to the epicentre responding first.
Before an eruption, for instance, goats and sheep were observed fleeing the volcano’s slopes in search of densely vegetated areas, which are often protected from lava flows.
Scientists came to the conclusion that animals are able to predict upcoming natural disasters at least four to six hours in advance based on their findings.
Hedgehogs and Owls
Nocturnal animals can detect earthquake vibrations far earlier than people, according to research from Kazakh experts. In particular, night-active creatures like hedgehogs and owls frequently become active during the day just before an earthquake occurs.
This anomalous behaviour is thought to be a blatant sign that an earthquake might be approaching. Furthermore, burrowing species, like some rats, have a tendency to escape before an earthquake, indicating that they are able to detect danger long in advance.
This was especially evident in 1992, right before a significant earthquake in Kyrgyzstan’s Illy area. The idea that animals might be able to perceive seismic occurrences before they occur is further supported by reports that all of the pigeons in the region had vanished just before the tremor struck.
In a another instance, scientists investigating a Siberian earthquake saw that certain dogs started acting strangely tense, barking, howling, whining, and rushing around minutes to hours before the earthquake occurred.
729 accounts of odd animal behaviour preceding earthquakes were examined in another study. Dogs, cats, birds, cows, elephants, toads, and fish were among the many animals that were the subject of the study.
Researchers discovered that the most of these behaviours took place in the penultimate hour before an earthquake, with the majority occurring within the 24 hours prior. Remarkably, the last five minutes accounted for about 60% of those last-hour events.
Animals seem to react differently in the moments leading up to an earthquake, however the precise cause is yet unknown.
The 2004 tsunami and earthquake in the Indian Ocean
Yala National Park in Sri Lanka, which is home to elephants, leopards, buffalo, monkeys, and other animals, experienced no recorded animal casualties during the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, despite the fact that enormous waves swept more than three kilometres inland. Interestingly, everyone who lived in the park seems to have barely avoided the destruction.
“I don’t believe it has any mystical qualities. Animals just respond to immediate stimuli; they are not able to predict the future. However, it’s crucial to keep in mind that animals’ senses differ from ours. Magnus Enquist, a professor of theoretical ethology, the study of animal behaviour, at Stockholm University, stated that wild animals in particular possess exceptionally keen senses.
Many animals, including elephants, probably recognised the threat before people did. They might hear the wave coming or feel the ground trembling. Elephants, for instance, have huge resonance chambers in their body and can sense vibrations through their feet. Additionally, they use infrasound to communicate over great distances, according to Enquist.
Low-frequency sound waves that are inaudible to humans—below 20 hertz—make up infrasound. Although Enquist thinks animals would have detected danger, he doesn’t think they knew exactly what to do out of instinct.
“Over time, animals that didn’t figure out where to go during a disaster didn’t survive,” says Sverre Sjölander, an ethology professor at Linköping University.
Snakes and lizards frequently surface from underground prior to an earthquake. They are able to identify the minor tremors that frequently precede a large earthquake, according to Sjölander. Additionally, he made the argument that animals watch and respond to one another’s actions. “Monkeys will imitate elephants if they observe them becoming agitated and fleeing.”
The majority of huge animals can outrun humans in terms of survival. Animals are also able to pick up on minute changes in their surroundings that humans overlook. Birds, for example, react to minute changes in air pressure, and migrating birds are particularly sensitive to variations in the Earth’s magnetic field.
Can a dog detect an earthquake coming?
For decades, there have been rumours that animals, especially dogs, can detect earthquakes before they happen. In fact, research has shown that dogs exhibit odd behaviours in the minutes to hours preceding an earthquake, including howling, barking, and restlessness.
Animals’ ability to accurately anticipate earthquakes is questioned, though, because people tend to recall odd behaviour better when an earthquake happens soon after. One study monitored Italian farm animals continuously in an attempt to remove this hindsight bias.
Although there isn’t any solid scientific proof that dogs can anticipate earthquakes, many people think they might be able to sense something strange that humans aren’t able to. Dogs may be responding to minute, imperceptible foreshocks, subterranean acoustic waves, or even environmental shifts like air ionisation or earthy odours.
The opinions of sceptics
According to study by Dr. Stanley Coren, dogs’ behavior—such as elevated fear and activity—may be related to high-frequency seismic sounds that they can detect before people do. It seemed that smaller dogs—particularly those with prick ears—reacted more strongly to these noises than did larger canines.
The growing number of accounts of animal behaviour changes before to earthquakes raises the possibility that animals may have a special ability to feel these natural disasters, even in the absence of concrete evidence.
This might be because of their keen senses, which enable them to pick up on sounds and sensations that people miss. Dogs and other animals may be able to alert us to approaching calamities in the future, providing an extra degree of early detection.
There isn’t much scientific evidence to support the theory that animals can sense earthquakes or landslides before physical indicators like ground vibrations are picked up by monitoring stations, according to those who doubt the ability of animals to forecast natural disasters.
They contend that in the few instances deemed likely for earthquake forecasts, animals were more likely to react to the actual seismic event since it arrived at observation sites sooner than more damaging events, such as the ensuing waves.
What are your thoughts? Is it possible that animals possess a “sixth sense” that allows them to notice things that humans cannot? Or is it merely our imagination? Post your opinions in the space provided for comments.