Can Animals Predict Disaster?


Yesterday I was re-hanging cabinets for a friend. She has two dogs that simplify love me, or so I think. They always seem to know when I’m coming over according to my friend. They round up their favorite toys that I have given them. So I can play ball with them. So yesterday, I came over to her house to help her husband re-hang the kitchen cabinets. They said the two dogs and their cats were hiding under the stairs, until I got there, when they emerged from their hiding place and gathered around me. This has never happen before. We all thought this was strange for these animals to react this way. After a few minutes they still would not leave my side and their family.

After we had the cabinets re-hung, I told the dogs that we would go outside to play for a bit, before I had to go. The dogs would not go outside; they hid under the stairs once again. So back inside I went they all gathered around me again. My friend her husband and I just joked about an earthquake was coming. After I left she said the dogs and her cats returned back to staying under the stairs.
Well last night Colorado had four earthquakes that shock many people that have lived in Colorado for 30 years. Well a 5.3 quake occurred last night. My friend’s husband called after the quake saying we should not joke about earthquakes. We agreed that the animals sense the quake.
It has been said that animals may have a sixth sense; predicting natural disasters (hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc.) or events. Some scientists believe that this may be true. It has been found that animals can pick up infrasound signals from upcoming catastrophes.







This is from a research paper.

In April 2009, British researchers were studying the common toad at a breeding site in central Italy when they “observed a mass exodus of toads,” Jill Lawless reports for the Associated Press.

Just five days later, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake hit, killing some 150 people and causing extensive damage to the town of L’Aquila.

Rachel Grant, a researcher at Open University and lead author of one of the first studies to document animal behavior surrounding earthquakes, believes “that toads are able to detect pre-seismic cues such as the release of gases and charged particles, and use these as a form of earthquake early warning system.”

According to the study, “Predicting the unpredictable; evidence of pre-seismic anticipatory behavior in the common toad,” the toad population at the breeding site dropped to zero three days prior to the quake.

“A day after the earthquake, they all started coming back,” Grant told the AP. “The numbers were still lower than normal and remained low until after the last aftershock.”
Animals Sensing Earthquakes
“The belief that animals can predict earthquakes has been around for centuries,” Maryann Mott wrote for National Geographic News in 2003. In 373 B.C., historians wrote that rats, weasels and snakes made a mass exodus from the Greek city of Helices days before an earthquake destroyed the city. Other examples exist from throughout the centuries. Reports include bees leaving their hive, catfish moving violently and chickens refusing to lay eggs. Pet owners also have examples of their cats and dogs behaving strangely before a quake.

To date, seismologists can’t predict when or where the next earthquake will hit, and scientists don’t know what, if anything, animals sense before a quake. Some, like Grant, think they can detect changes in the Earth’s gases. Others wonder if animals’ more sensitive hearing and other senses allow them to feel vibrations that humans can’t, or detect electrical changes.

Although some researchers continue to pursue the idea that animals can be used as an early warning prediction system, others remain skeptical. “What we’re faced with is a lot of anecdotes,” Andy Michael, a geophysicist at United States Geological Survey, told Mott. “Animals react to so many things—being hungry, defending their territories, mating, predators—so it’s hard to have a controlled study to get that advanced warning signal.”

The PBS show “Nature” examined the issue in 2005 in “Can Animals Predict Disaster?” Watch the full episode online to see “ancient ideas about how animals can predict disaster which are now gaining credence in scientific circles.”





So what are your thoughts on this.

I believe they sense things. I also believe they know when they are dying and decide to run away instead hurting their owners/loved ones. I had a Boston Terrier while my father was ill with cancer. the whole week before he passed she would not leave his side. The day he died she laid on his chest the whole time he was laying down. If he got up she followed him but as soon as he was back on the couch she was back on his chest. So yes I believe they since danger and emergency situations.

I have always felt the animals could indeed sense sickness or Natures wrath.
The cats my wife and I had, would stay with her more just before she had to be taken to the hospital. The animals would not eat for days. She never returned home, after her pasting they began to eat but not like they have in the past. I got use to the two dogs and the two cats sleeping on her side of the bed.

I strongly feel that animals do indeed sense dangers and emergency situations.

If they did not why would so many emergency workers use dogs?

The scientific community, can not gain enough information on this to say yes animals can predict natural disasters. In the real world they can however say there is some natural sense of animals to predict earthquakes, or other occurring disasters.

Well the scientific community can not gather enough evidence to prove a lot of things. But that does not mean it is not true or does not exist. There are some thing that are ot meant to be proven. If it was God would have given us the knowledge we need to prove it.

After reading many websites this morning, I just want to grasp a person in a white coat and shake the living hell out of them.

The funny thing last night we kind of joked about it. Then she thought why would the animals come out when I was there. I just got off the phone with her. The dogs just went outside. So has the earthquakes stopped completely now? The strange behavior of these animals really hit home this morning.

I lived in Southern California, earthquakes are very common. Thousands of reports said that animals at the zoos were acting odd. Just before many of the larger quakes that hit So. Cal.

Well I believe it is just like with their hearing. They can hear pitches that the normal human ear can not. So I am sure there is a lot ruckus going on under the earth that we can not hear.

As for them acting that way towards you...I believe it was because you were not in your safe zone. You had to get outside to get to it. Whether it was your house or their house. The animals once they saw you knew you were safe.

I think my cat is predicting an earthquake cause he's always staring at walls for years. We don't get many earthquakes in Pittsburgh, so I think this is gonna be a doozy when it comes......

Or maybe he smells a dead body

My friend said she was thinking the her dogs and cats, were tiring to tell me something, but I was not listening. Maybe like you said she thought the same thing. Or she was thinking the animals felt safe around me. Many interesting ideas. Wow another little shake just happen. How fun is that.

Lee took my idea of a body in the wall.

Sad thing is we will probably never know. Unless we become animals ourselves. Hmmmm now that's a thought.

I have been called a animal before. I can sense many things. But that indeed is another story.

I thought this is a grand reason to listen to your animals.




Erratic Behavior in Dogs

Researchers around the world continue to pursue the idea, however. 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.

There have also been examples where authorities have forecast successfully a major earthquake, based in part on the observation of the strange antics of animals. For example, in 1975 Chinese officials ordered the evacuation of Haicheng, a city with one million people, just days before a 7.3-magnitude quake. Only a small portion of the population was hurt or killed. If the city had not been evacuated, it is estimated that the number of fatalities and injuries could have exceeded 150,000.

I know huh. Belly button lint check!

That just goes to show that we should listen to our animals more often and not holler at them to be quiet when they are barking for unknown reasons.

clean

That always makes me laugh

That is grand I like to hear people laugh.