How can animals sense earthquakes

Individual behavioral change hardly mattered. Several studies in the past have reported anecdotal evidence of animals exhibiting unusual behavior prior to an earthquake. Camera traps showed wild animals behaving unusually before the Contamana earthquake in Peru. There might be other variables that the researchers are not aware of.

Wikelski recognizes the shortcomings of his study. Register or Log In. The Magazine Shop. Accounts of similar animal anticipation of earthquakes have surfaced across the centuries since. Catfish moving violently, chickens that stop laying eggs and bees leaving their hive in a panic have been reported.

Countless pet owners claimed to have witnessed their cats and dogs acting strangely before the ground shook—barking or whining for no apparent reason, or showing signs of nervousness and restlessness. But precisely what animals sense, if they feel anything at all, is a mystery. One theory is that wild and domestic creatures feel the Earth vibrate before humans.

Other ideas suggest they detect electrical changes in the air or gas released from the Earth. Earthquakes are a sudden phenomenon. Seismologists have no way of knowing exactly when or where the next one will hit. An estimated , detectable quakes occur in the world each year. Of those, , can be felt by humans, and cause damage. One of the world's most earthquake-prone countries is Japan, where devastation has taken countless lives and caused enormous damage to property.

Researchers there have long studied animals in hopes of discovering what they hear or feel before the Earth shakes in order to use that sense as a prediction tool. American seismologists, on the other hand, are skeptical.

Even though there have been documented cases of strange animal behavior prior to earthquakes, the United States Geological Survey, a government agency that provides scientific information about the Earth, says a reproducible connection between a specific behavior and the occurrence of a quake has never been made. In the s, a few studies on animal prediction were done by the USGS "but nothing concrete came out of it," said Michael.

Since that time the agency has made no further investigations into the theory. Researchers around the world continue to pursue the idea, however. In September 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.

If our animal companions can give us a heads-up when an event like this is about to happen, it could be truly lifesaving. But can they really?

The scholarly literature provides dozens of anecdotal reports of companion animals , livestock , wildlife and even insects behaving strangely before earthquakes.

But a review of publications reporting records of abnormal or unusual animal behaviours prior to earthquakes found the evidence correlating these behaviours with subsequent earthquakes was weak.

To establish that unusual animal behaviours can predict earthquakes, scientists would need to observe animals under controlled environmental conditions for extended periods of time — long enough to be able to observe their behaviour before, during and after earthquakes. Just ahead of the 5. Keepers recalled the activity after the quake took place. Lemurs—small primates from Madagascar—are prolific vocalizers when upset, and can make their grievances known multiple times a day, says Kerns.

So why do humans cling to the idea that animals are prognosticators? Freund had passed away. We regret the error. When not chasing down a story from our nation's capital, she takes in the food, music and culture of southwest Louisiana from the peaceful perch of her part-time New Orleans home.