China officially uses animal behaviour to predict earthquakes. I think Rupert Sheldrake has some talk on this (no link though). All rural Chinese are to report odd animal behaviour for just this reason and the success rate is something like 50%!

This is interesting I have always thought that animals can sense things that we cant....Ive seen stories of cats heading for the hills just before a tornado strikes and what not ...Interesting story.

Same stories from the tsunami.

About an hour before the wave hit a herd of buffaloes on the beach froze with their heads directed to the ocean. For about a minute their were like stiffened, then they set for the hills. The villagers run after them, that saved their lives.

Same story with some elephantes. They sudddenly lost discipline and run. The mahuts set after them and managed to get them under control. Only for about ten minutes, then they were off again. Second time no discipline worked.

Fascinating article and pics, thanks for posting this.

The "frog march" is amazing, and the evidence is overwhelming that animals sense earthquakes and other catastrophic events that we are dumb to.

[edit on 15-5-2008 by gottago]

Its amazing how some people still refuse to acknowledge that animals can sense things we can't. I don't know if its a pride issue or what, but I think we can safely label it A FACT that animals can and do sense impending danger.

I know I'm convinced.

I think its been documented well enough, on hundreds upon thousands of situations.

I never heard about the buffalo/tsunami story. But I don't doubt it at all.

I can't understand why some people don't buy in to it. Is it truly a pride issue; they're "just animals" so it can't possibly be true? Or is it just plain ignorance?

Maybe animals don't know why they're running away from a particular area, but they know enough to get the hell out of there. That's good enough for me.

We need to start paying attention and heeding their warnings.

[edit on 5/15/08 by NovusOrdoMundi]

I know that the Japanese have been carrying out experiments with catfish for quite some time - apparently when an earthquake is imminent, they begin to swim erratically. There's a significant folklore behind it. There have been mixed results thusfar, from what I understand.

The problem with using animal behavior as a method for prediction is that even if you can isolate all other possible stimulus for erratic behavior, you still cannot answer any of the following questions with any degree of certainty:

- When will the earthquake be?
- Where will the earthquake be centered?
- How strong will the earthquake be?

Even if the first two could be predicted accurately, the third is the most important. Think of it in terms of, say, Los Angeles. the government issues a 12 hour warning of a quake. People go home, remove the good china from the top shelves, quietly line up for bottled water and supplies, and evacuate the city in an orderly fashion. The quake hits and it's a M5.5. Or a 6.0. Can you see any potential problems arising from this situation?

Unfortunately, at the moment, relying on animals (and cloud formations) for quakes is only marginally accurate. It's like the phrase "red sky in morning, sailors take warning". If you see a red sky in the morning, you will likely get bad weather - but you don't have any idea of when, or how bad the weather will be. Could be a drizzle, could be a hurricane.