Can Animals Sense Earthquakes?

For centuries, people have believed that animals can predict earthquakes, as some animals behave differently a few days before an earthquake occurs, such as, catfish moving violently, chickens that stop laying eggs and bees leaving their hive in a panic..

Animals are known to have keen senses that help them avoid predators or locate prey. So it is thought that these senses might also help them detect pending disasters.

A research on this was made by Sheldrake, and in all cases, there were reports of animals displaying peculiar behaviour beforehand, such as dogs howling in the night mysteriously, caged birds becoming restless, and nervous cats hiding. Overall, his report showed comparable patterns of animal behavior prior to earthquakes all over the world.

Other than this, in September 2003, a medical doctor in Japan made headlines with a study that indicated erratic behavior in dogs, such as excessive barking or biting, could be used to forecast quakes.

Despite all these reasearches, a real connection between a specific behavior and the occurrence of an earthquake has not been made. Some scientist believe that with their finely tuned senses, animals can often feel the earthquake at its earliest stages before the humans can, and they have two theories as to how animals may be able to detect earthquakes. One theory is that animals sense the earth's vibrations. While another is that they can detect changes in the air or sense gases released by the earth.

A few others disagree, saying that animals also change their behavior for many reasons such as changes in weather, being hungry, defending their territories, mating, predators. And given that an earthquake can shake millions of people, it is likely that a few of their pets will, by chance, be acting strangely before an earthquake.

Although scientists disagree as to whether animal behavior can be used to predict earthquakes and natural disasters, they all agree that it is possible for animals to sense changes in the environment before humans.



From:http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/11/1111_031111_earthquakeanimals.html#main