It has been thought for centuries that animals have a sense that an earthquake is going to happen. Even in ancient Greece, there have been recordings of animals abandoning the land days before the earthquake destroyed the land. An earthquake in the Indian Ocean caused a tsunami in Sri Lanka that killed thousands of people, but there were no recording of wild animal death. When an earthquake hit Virginia recently in August of this year, there were many odd behaviors recorded in the Smithsonian National Zoo. All the animals had a sense of panic when the ground was shaking, but there were some interesting behaviors that occurred minutes before the quake happened. The flamingos flocked together in a huddle, the Great Apes abandoned their food and climbed to the top of the tree, and the red ruffled lemurs were sending alarm calls several minutes before it hit. How are these animals sensing this disaster before it occurs?
There are two theories to explain this behavior in animals. With the fine-tuned responses to predation that most animals have, it is believed that they have a great sense for vibrations in the ground, so they feel it before it far before humans can. Another is that they detect gases that are released from the Earth when the quake happens at the core. With all these recordings of change in animal behavior, one would think that this can be used to predict an earthquake coming to get humans to a safe environment, especially those living in a high-risk environment.
Scientists have pondered this use of animals, but many are very skeptical. They agree that animals have a great sense to detect things before humans can, but there are so many different variables that can change the behaviors of animals that it would be nearly impossible to come up with an experiment to isolate behaviors caused strictly by the upcoming earthquake. People still strive to make a connection with the behaviors, for if it was ever made, many lives can be saved by these disasters.
http://news.discovery.com/animals/earthquake-how-animals-reacted-110825.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/11/1111_031111_earthquakeanimals.html
Posted by Abbie Saranteas
I'm uncertain as to the actual use of animals in disaster prediction. I do not know about the actual application of such a process, but it seems to me that there are better ways of predicting earthquakes and the like. Rather, the biological aspect of these senses seem valuable. Besides merely providing understanding of senses beyond our own, it is possible that we could even technologically mimic said senses. Alas, I am rather uninformed on the mechanical aspect and can only hope for understanding the behaviours themselves.
ReplyDeletePosted by Jacob Lane
I too have always wondered how animals can sense things that we can't. For example my dog can always tell when a thunderstorm is rolling in, even if it is still an hour or two away from us. Although I think it would be very useful to use these types of signals animals produce prior to a threatening natural disaster such as a tsunami or earthquake, it would be very difficult. Since animals use a lot of the same signals in different contexts, it might be impossible to pinpoint a certain call or behavior for this type of phenomenon. The same call an animal might use for warning of a predator might be used for a warning of an earthquake.
ReplyDeletePosted by Sara Corey
It is fascinating to see how animals are instinctively able to detect natural events such as earthquakes while we spend millions and millions of dollars on research and development to do the same – and still be unable to accurately predict earthquakes like these animals. In addition, I find it intriguing that it’s not just one species of animals that can do this; rather many species seem to share this ability. We definitely should do more research on how these animals are able to detect natural disasters.
ReplyDeletePosted by James Lin
I believe that the animals must be able to sense the vibrations that we cannot. Earthworm can sense the vibrations of moles in the ground that may be digging for them and these vibrations are used to get worms to come up on ground so they can be harvested for fishing. Many other senses that animals have are more complex and fine tuned then ours, like birds can see UV light and bats can hear and produce ultrasonic waves, it would not surprise me if animals can detect vibration before humans can.
ReplyDeletePosted by Noelle Kellicker
I wonder if there was ever a time where our ancestors used to be able to detect natural disasters before they happened. It would save us a lot of money if we had natural instincts about disasters. I saw something about an elephant who was chained to a tree and broke free to get to higher ground moments before a tsunami killed thousands. I'm not sure if it would be a reliable way to predict storms and disasters but it is definitely interesting how animals seem to have a stronger sense than us.
ReplyDeletePosted by Caitlin Descovich O'Hare
I definitely think that many animals have almost a sixth sense to detect a natural disaster. However, I believe it would be really hard to come up with some sort of system in which we used animals to detect natural disasters. For instance, my dog freaks several hours before a minor thunderstorm occurs. However I believe you're getting at something by saying it caused by a release of gasses in the planet. I wonder if there exists a certain level of barometric pressure for each species that causes these strange behaviors?
ReplyDeletePosted by Nick Gast
Interesting topic, but I'm wondering if you know if there is a certain magnitude that it has to be at before animals start reacting? There probably hasn't been much research done on this because as you said, animals have a lot of variables and its impossible to control them all. I'm just curious about the magnitude because I've never seen my dog act strangely during the small earthquakes that we've felt in New England.
ReplyDeletePosted by Janelle Hayes
Elephants have subsonic hearing and supposedly can hear rock warping under tectonic pressure. However, the smelling of pre-earthquake gas emissions is not possible, as such emissions do not exist, unless the earthquake is associated with volcanism.
ReplyDeleteDave Magrass
WOW, that is really fascinating that the animals had varying responses as the earthquake got closer and closer. It makes me wonder if evolution could have selected for traits that would allow the animals to sense that natural disasters are coming. I would imagine that over time, adaptions to allow the animals to move to safer locations would be beneficial. It would be very interesting to examine the reactions of land species versus aquatic species because I would imagine if a Tsunami was about to hit that they would move off to safe areas.
ReplyDeletePosted By Caroline Adams
This post was a great read and I have looked at the articles you have provided us. It is amazing to me that some animals can detect these vibrations! Do some of the animals have different or more sensitive sensory organs that they rely on to feel these vibrations? The information about all the animals in the zoo was fascinating also. It amazes me that even the animals that are in captivity still have these reactions to the earthquakes vibrations. Do you think over time that these captive animals that are bred and will never see the outside world will lose their ability to pick up on these vibrations? Also, the fact that some animals can smell the gases that come from the earth alarm them and make a reaction off that! Great articles and post!
ReplyDeletePosted by Ryan Dulmaine
Thanks for the comments! Sara Corey, I agree that there are many behaviors of animals that are used in more than one context, which makes it difficult to determine if their behavior is due to a possible earthquake. This is why scientists are skeptical to use this as an indicator.
ReplyDeleteJames Lin, I agree it is very intriguing that we spend such money on ways to predict these disasters when animals all around us can sense it with no effort.
Ryan Dulmaine, thank you for your great interest in my article! That is a very good question about zoo animals. I do not think that animals taken out of their natural environment will become insensitive to the earthquake vibrations, because they will still be genetically programmed to have the same senses as the animals of their species that are in the wild. If the zoo decided to breed many generations of their own animals, I would think that over time, the domesticated animals will become less sensitive to certain vibrations. My dog still goes crazy when a storm is about to hit, and she came from a breeder who has been bringing up the dogs for several generations. Great question!
Posted by Abbie Saranteas