Animals sensing Tsunamis

[pmurray]

Entirely possible. Why would animals sense earthquakes etc and humans not? Animals generally don't wear shoes. It could be that simple. As anyone who has had their feet tickled knows, they can be very sensitive.

 

[-42-]

Entirely possible. Why would animals sense earthquakes etc and humans not? Animals generally don't wear shoes. It could be that simple. As anyone who has had their feet tickled knows, they can be very sensitive.

Recent evidence suggests there isn't anything unusual there, as lots of dead animals have been found. Initially there weren't many found, later a lot of them.

Also many animals can certainly sense things better than us. Smells, vibration, sight, hearing... etc...

 

[rjh01]

For example, I read that elephants could hear the Indian Ocean Tsunamis approaching because they are sensitive to low frequency sound waves.

Another explanation is that animals often behave strangely. If nothing happens, the owners forget about it. However, if a disaster happens then the owner thinks the animal knew about the disaster.

 

[-42-]

For example, I read that elephants could hear the Indian Ocean Tsunamis approaching because they are sensitive to low frequency sound waves.

Another explanation is that animals often behave strangely. If nothing happens, the owners forget about it. However, if a disaster happens then the owner thinks the animal knew about the disaster.

I think that particularly story sprung from an account of one person/handler who said the elephants "broke their chains" and headed off away from the Tsunami "before it struck". I recall even seeing it on TV, though I don't immediately recall when or where I saw it. Kind of made me say 'hmm..... . ..' when I saw it, I think it might have been MSNBC or FOXNews, though I'm not sure, because the one I saw gave the impression it did so well before - ie: Hours before - the Tsunami even was close to the coast.

I can only assume you're talking about the same, or similar event....

Made me wonder, why have the chains if they can break them at will? If they can break the chains if they want, why not choose rope instead? Have they ever broken those chains before? If so why not choose thicker ones - or ones of heaver material - that they can't break? How long have these chains been utilized without breakage?

Seems to me, if I own an Elphant, and if it goes of running at 4am, because it's capable of escaping its confinement, that's an issue.

Or are elephants typically stationary, provided it has elements it needs available to it, and moderate means of confinement to restrain it.

I don't know if you are talking about the same thing as I am, but the thing I saw on TV was about them 'breaking chains' and 'heading off away' occured many hours before the tsunami.

 

[rjh01]

Just did a search of the internet. Came up with these from National Geographic news

Did Animals Sense Tsunami Was Coming?

and

Can Animals Sense Earthquakes?

This mentions what 42 and I was talking about Wildlife and the Tsunami

 

[Rolfe]

Animals in general can sprint faster than humans. And are less curious and more wary of a strange phenomenon. While not dismissing the fact that animal senses might be able to pick up changes earlier than human ones (I know my cat can hear things before I pick them up), any reduction in the animal death toll is likely to have been due to them taking off very fast the instant they heard or saw something frightening.

Trying to imply some sort of psychic precognition on the part of animals, as some sources did, is simply not justified.

By the way, I don't have the source, but to balance the tales that "primitive peoples" were able to psychically sense the tsunami, the primitive people who were actually interviewed said they were caught as flat-footed as everyone else.

The one documented story of a beach being cleared before the wave hit, because someone "sensed" what was about to happen, was actually relating to a ten-year-old English schoolgirl, who had had a geography lesson about tsunamis shortly before it happened, and recognised the signs her teacher had described. She grew so agitated that she persuaded her parents to alert hotel staff and clear the beach. She was presented with a medal by the Marine Society last week. Here's a link.

Rolfe.

 

[Beady]

The one documented story of a beach being cleared before the wave hit, because someone "sensed" what was about to happen, was actually relating to a ten-year-old English schoolgirl, who had had a geography lesson about tsunamis shortly before it happened, and recognised the signs her teacher had described.

I was stationed on Kodiak for three years, some 25 years ago. Don't know if it's still true, but back then the first thing that happened when you arrived was that everyone told you about the earthquake and tsunami of 1964(?), which occurred in almost exactly the same way (earthquake, followed by abnormally low tide). Then, we had at least one tsunami drill annually, and re-heard the story each time.

When I heard the story of the January '05 tsunami, Kodiak '64 immediately flashed through my mind. Based on that, I truly believe, had I been present, I would've taken one look and run for the hills. Unfortunately, I would've probably been self-conscious enough that I'd be afraid of making a fool of myself, so wouldn't have tried to get others to do the same.

 

[-42-]

I'm guessing the chains were just for guiding or keeping in a small area while trainers worked with them, the report said tourists were ontop of them at the time..(lol)

Also it said 'minutes before'. The news report I saw on TV implied an extreme amount of time.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6795562/

"We know they have better sense of hearing; they have better sense of sounds; they have better sense of sight," says Bill Karesh with the Wildlife Conservation Society. "And they're more reactive to those signals than we tend to be."

And even though the animals aren't communicating directly with each other, they are taking cues from other animals' behavior.

"If they see birds flying away, or if they see other animals running, they're going to get nervous too," says Karesh.

As for the apparent paucity of animal corpses in many areas, the larger animals do not live on or near the seashore. It’s humans that populate these areas with their hotels, cabanas, beach beds and the like. Where humans reign, animals, especially larger animals, generally retreat. - Egypt Today

 

[Seismosaurus]

Re: Re: Animals sensing Tsunamis

Recent evidence suggests there isn't anything unusual there, as lots of dead animals have been found. Initially there weren't many found, later a lot of them.

Also many animals can certainly sense things better than us. Smells, vibration, sight, hearing... etc...

Does anybody even LOOK for dead animals after a tsunami? I remember when the tsunami hit, the initial comments were often along the lines of "wow, there's almost no reports of dead animals!"

I mean, a thirty foot wave flattens your village and kills half the population, the first thing on you mind isn't going to be to go out and count how many dead chickens and cows there are!

And I suspect once the idea takes hold, there's a fair degree of confirmation bias and exaggeration going on - lots of people going "oh yeah, now I think about it I didn't see my dog for half an hour before the wave hit. Spooky!"

I can only begin to imagine how you would go about proving something like this. Some sort of population census of different animal species taken before and after the tsunami maybe, comparing their survival rates with that of Humans... if that's even possible, does anything like it exist?

 

[oglommi]

most animals run alot faster than humans and would have had better odds of outrunning the tsunami.