What is it about the animals that allowed them to "sense" the earthquakes?

[fujiyama]

OK, I'm sure some others have heard how many of the animals were able to escape, and I heard that many animals - of different sizes were able to survive.

Does anyone know anything about this? Why this may be the case? I've heard of similar stories before...but I never really knew whether this was an urban legend...or what the case was.

[lindashaw]

1. This is only a theory: They must sense the change in

barometric pressure. It probably hurts their ears. In my opinion, it isn't a sixth sense as much as it is an attempt to go to a place where the pressure is less on their eardrums. When a storm is very close, birds will fly really low to the ground so they don't have to be where the pressure is worse.

Only a theory...

[RC]

7. The explain why some of those same birds can be found flying

at 4-6 thousand feet and sometime more.
Low barometric pressure hurting their hears is BS. It doesn't hurt ours does it?

[NNN0LHI]

11. BOYLE’S LAW

The volume of a gas is inversely proportional to its pressure when temperature remains constant.

Physiological significance: As altitude increases, atmospheric pressure drops, and gases (including gases trapped in any body cavity) expand. The expansion of gases causes an increase in the pressure on surrounding tissues and may result in tissue damage. This expansion of gases explains the effects of changes in atmospheric pressure on ears, sinuses, teeth and the gastrointestinal tract. Gas in the middle ear or the sinuses that expands under these conditions may not be vented adequately, which can result in pain, inflammation and, in the case of the middle ear, the possibility of rupture of the ear drum.

[Squatch]

13. YAWN

No, really...Yawn. Opening the eustachian tubes relieves pressure.

[NNN0LHI]

15. Perhaps you should have been running around Sri Lanka opening up...

...the Eustachian tubes of all the animals there before the tsunami hit to relieve the pressure in their ears then? That way we could rule out the theory that the change in barometric pressure had nothing to do with them running like hell before it hit. I think thats what this thread is about? Yawn.
Don

[Squatch]

16. Yawn, indeed.

Your acerbic posts get old.

[ShaneGR]

28. uummmm.... would tsunami affect bar pressure? I would think not.

maybe I'm wrong.

[leesa]

20. No but it gives me a smashing headache. Maybe their heads hurt.

Did you know your anatomy is different from a birds?

[Az]

24. Doesn't need to hurt them

Animals are not constrained by our curiousity or attachment to material posessions. When they feel a change in the environment they run. Its a strong instinct. This is why it is so hard to sneek up on a critter. They are not psychic. They just react when they sense a change(with normal senses).

When we sense a barometric or atmospheric change we get curious. We wonder what was that. We stick around. If we have stuff in the area and the change is drastic enough to worry us we may start collecting our stuff. Not until we actually see the coming disaster do we start to move rapidly.

[cruadin]

26. I think your assessment is closest to the truth...

you don't have to hit an animal over the head to get its attention. They are very aware of their surroundings, and they react to the slightest indication of a change.
Animals don't have ESP or magical powers, they are just more "hard wired" with the flight response, a response that humans have repressed to all but the most glaring threats.

[supernova]

2. Could be they're picking up on small tremors

that happen just before the big event. Tremors that we don't notice.

[NNN0LHI]

3. Same reason my dog starts freaking out because of thunder...

...when the sky is still sunny here and I can't hear it yet. Their sensory perceptions of hearing, vision, smell, etc., are maybe hundreds of times more sensitive than ours. This is no mystery.

Don

[fujiyama]

4. It seems like that's a big reason for it

Hearing, pressure changes, etc...

[MemphisTiger]

5. I've heard that it's due to the sensitivity of their pads

they can feel the vibrations before humans. I heard this from my sixth grade science teacher, so take that for what it's worth. This is the same person that said water contracts when it freezes. So I think she hit the weed hard in college.

[B Calm]

6. Same reason fish bite better right before a storm.

They have senses we don't have. Cows laying down in a pasture is a sign of rain coming. Leaves on trees with the shiny side up is a sign for rain.

[shadowknows69]

12. they still have senses we've failed to develop as a species

we're the one species who could have made a cognitive choice to remain more naturally minded and in tune with the very organism that give us life. Sorry creationists whether or not we were plopped here by a divine being or evolved is a moot point. the earth is what sustains our lives not any construct of man. And as is painfully aware the natural process is a harsh and violent one. I believe our mother gives us the tools to survive if we choose to use them.

[SpiralHawk]

8. Follow the Creature Teachers

Seneca Grandmother Twylah Nitsch would say this frequently: in the time of extreme Earth Changes, follow the animals and birds. They will always know what is coming, and by their actions show you how to respond.

Meegwich, Grandma Twy !

[Selatius]

9. They probably heard the tsunami coming in

I don't know the full range of sound a tsunami creates, but it probably sounded a lot different than ordinary tidal forces and storm surges. It's just conjecture on my part though. I don't know if it's the case, but it does seem worth testing.

[shadowknows69]

10. I don't think "urban legend" would apply here

jungle legend maybe? Island legend? I say natural truth. People(some still can) used to listen to the earth and hear it's warnings too.

[LWolf]

14. horses

disclaimer: my own "anecdotal" evidence:

Horses respond to changes in barometric pressure. It doesn't matter if the pressure is increasing or decreasing, they respond to the change. They get more "flighty," head up, more tension/adrenaline. We often watch our horses to see when the storm is "really" coming in.

I believe that horses feel more vibrations in the earth than we do; horses seem to "feel" earthquakes before people do.

Horses are prey animals; they respond to changes, anything that is "different," as if it may be a threat. Of course, predators have to respond to changing conditions to find and catch prey, too.

Animals' senses are, in many cases, more highly developed than ours, and can detect "changes" or "differences" before we do. Their survival is more closely tied to being able to survive in "natural" conditions than ours is, so they are more closely attuned to changes.

[Festivito]

17. Perhaps too many humans on the beach, animals reside inland?

Also, animals stay further apart from each other than humans. In undeveloped areas near water, fewer to be swept means fewer swept.

Amimals are in better general shape than many humans, and, more often in physical competition for food, shelter, and safety, they can turn fast and run fast. Combined with being inland. If animals are not in good shape, chances are they would already be dead, unlike humans who can walk around with and after a number of health problems.

And, I would think animals could be superstitious, or just less happy with change, choosing to shelter themselves and watch if something unusal happens -- like an unusually giant wave approaching or differing bird patterns. Whereas, humans enjoy the novelty, and run to gather newly revealed shells.

Could think of more, but isn't this enough.

[Historic NY]

18. What really needs to be asked is why didn't the humans react....

to the animals leaving the area. Animals flee and humans stay...can't call them dumb animals.

[jmatthan]

19. Maybe it is because they are

far more intelligent than human beings. They have preserved their natural faculties (senses of smell, taste,, nervous system hearing, seeing, distance gaging, speed, limb to mind co-ordination) unlike human beings.

Compare your American human "chimp" and his dumb statements to my intelligent house cat, and you will get the drift.

Jacob Matthan
Oulu, Finland

[Jesus H. Christ]

21. Absolutely nothing.

It's a myth. It's been proven over and over that animals don't "sense" earthquakes.

[shadowknows69]

23. which filthy animals came forward and blew the whistle

It's been proven animals don't detect earthquakes? Ok and 700 years ago the world was flat. Get thee to a grip.

[Jesus H. Christ]

25. So you're saying because people thought the world was flat...

that it means animals can detect earthquakes?

I hate to break it to you, but the scientific method proved that the earth was round and that animals don't detect earthquakes. It also proved that diseases aren't caused by demon possession and that astrology is bullshit. I hate to break it to you.

[flvegan]

27. Got a link or reference?

To the debunking via scientific method that animals can't sense pending earthquakes/natural disasters?

Hell, if a dog can smell a single melanoma cell, I'd believe other animals would have heightened sensory perceptions and abilities as well.

[lazarus]

33. how about our entire house?

We've got 3 rats, 2 cats, a bird and a dog. None of them have ever reacted in any way before an earthquake hit.

[HeeBGBz]

22. Sounds, magnetics, sensitivity to vibration

Or some other connecting factor. Instinct.

[arcane1]

29. my cat damned sure can't detect them

[shadowknows69]

30. alright Darwin cite your proof that animals can't predict them

Granted I don't have proof they can, I was just saying you should be more open minded to such things. Why ignore a possible early warning system just because it doesn't have some quantifiable numbers to it.

[arcane1]

31. now I'm Darwin all of a sudden?

IIRC, I said "my cat", not "animals". Quakes surprise her just like they surprise me. Anecdotal evidence on my part, absent any claims for any other animal on this planet

:eyes:

[shadowknows69]

32. I was replying to original post by

Uh....Jesus H Christ. Probably a higher authority on the whole mess than Darwin was anyway ;O)