Toads can 'predict earthquakes'

news.bbc.co.uk...

Common toads appear to be able to sense an impending earthquake and will flee their colony days before the seismic activity strikes.

The evidence comes from a population of toads which left their breeding colony three days before an earthquake that struck L'Aquila in Italy in 2009.

I have heard of this phenomenon before... normal regarding domestic animals fleeing homes before a quake. This is the first time i have heard of Toads being an indicator... seem like the whole animal kingdom has the ability to detect quakes... just shows how out of tune with earth humans have become!!

Indeed, now toads can be added to this list of animals that make earthquake predictions.

As we are domesticated primates we have eradicated the earth connection what with being domestic.

SnF

reply to post by Muckster


I heard just before the big Earthquake in Japan recently, there was toads everywhere.

I will try to locate information on this. I know I read it somewhere once. It does make perfect sense.

Edit, to add link.

It was China actually. Here you go.
www.weirdasianews.com...

~ Zeus


[edit on 31-3-2010 by Zeus2573]

reply to post by Muckster


Yeah cool story Muckster!!

I read it this afternoon. What a coincidence somebody is doing toad-research in an area where an earthquake hits. We already saw this before the Sichuan quake of 2008 in China but no toad-researchers were present...

Apparently ants don't seem to get distracted by an earthquake and go about their business...

S+F

Peace

Nice to see this get some recognition by a peer reviewed journal.

This was found to be related to perturbations in the ionosphere.

"Detected by very low frequency (VLF) radio sounding".

Link to abstract and free fulltext.

Predicting the unpredictable; evidence of pre-seismic anticipatory behaviour in the common toad

ABSTRACT

The widespread belief that animals can anticipate earthquakes (EQs) is poorly supported by evidence, most of which consists of anecdotal post hoc recollections and relates to a very short period immediately before such events. In this study, a population of reproductively active common toads Bufo bufo were monitored over a period of 29 days, before, during and after the EQ (on day 10) at L'Aquila, Italy, in April 2009. Although our study site is 74 km from L'Aquila, toads showed a dramatic change in behaviour 5 days before the EQ, abandoning spawning and not resuming normal behaviour until some days after the event. It is unclear what environmental stimuli the toads were responding to so far in advance of the EQ, but reduced toad activity coincides with pre-seismic perturbations in the ionosphere, detected by very low frequency (VLF) radio sounding. We compare the response of toads to the EQ with the reported responses to seismic activity of several other species.

Very cool thread. S&F.

I think animals can certainly sense weather/earth changes that we humans can't.

a while back I saw a Doco that mentioned a guy who done a study on Lost Pets before Earthquakes.

He found the number of lost cats and dogs rocketed in the days leading up to Earthquake activity.

Very interesting.

g