The earliest documented earthquake occurred in China in 1177 B.C.
For apices, humans have been witness to innumerable earth shattering earthquakes.
The San Francisco earthquakes of 1906 was one of the most destructive in the recorded history of North America – the earthquake and the fire that followed killed nearly 700 people and left the city in ruins.
They have also been clueless spectators to alarmed animal behavior in the run-up to these natural disasters.
Could these “not so advanced” animals be knowing more than us when it comes to the earth phenomenon like tornadoes, earthquakes or even tsunamis. And more importantly can they be used to warn us of impending ruinations?
Even today, no human technology including the much hyped artificial intelligence, can reliably predict when and where an earthquake will occur. However, eyewitnesses have repeatedly reported that animals behave unusually before an earthquake.
Many studies have investigated whether cows, sheep, and dogs can actually detect early signs of earthquakes.
The data so collected and reviewed showed that the animals were unusually restless in the hours before the earthquakes. Their behavior depended upon their relative location to the origin of the earthquake, called the Epicenter. The closer the animals were to the epicenter of the impending quake, the earlier they started behaving unusually.
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It has been hypothesized that such movements of the animals and their patterns can help in predicting occurrence of earthquakes.
The Disagreement
There is general disagreement about whether earthquakes can be exactly predicted.
Nevertheless, animals seem to sense the imminent tremors hours in advance. For example, there are reports that wild animals leave their sleeping and nesting places immediately before strong quakes and that pets become restless.
Chinese researchers have found out that snakes leave their nests when an earthquake is about to happen , even if they have been hibernating in winters.
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However other researchers donot accept such hypothesis. They opine that such suppositions donot stand up to scientific scrutiny because the definition of unusual behaviour is often too vague. More over , other factors could also explain the behaviour of the animals.
Anyhow there are many instances where such “ unusual behaviour has been observed just hours before a catastrophic event happened.
We list a few here and leave it to you to decide if the animals do actually know more than us or not.
Japan’s New Year Earthquake 2024
Free public domain CC0 photo.
A devastating earthquake of magnitude 7.6 on Richter Scale hit the Ishikawa prefecture in Japan on New year of 2024. At the time of writing this almost 500 people had lost lives and many had lost their homes. While there were warnings for a possible Tsunmai but later that order was retracted .
During all the turmoil a few residents have been sharing evidence on the popular social media site X, showing a peculiar phenomenon involving birds acting as natural warning signals has been observed in Japan just hours before the tremor happened.
Representative pic. courtesy-pexels-helena
Residents have reportedly shared videos showing extraordinary behavior among various bird species in the affected areas. The videos, which have since went viral on the internet, shows flocks of birds suddenly changing their flight patterns, exhibiting unusual agitation, and emitting distinctive warning calls. Much to peoples surprise, such unusual bird behaviors were noted in multiple locations.
Seismologists and ornithologists are analyzing the correlation between the birds’ activities and the subsequent earthquake. The scientists hypothesize that the birds may have picked up on subtle seismic signals or might have sensed sudden changes in the Earth’s electromagnetic field, to which they are highly sensitive, making them act in an erratic manner, which was perceived by some as a warning sign for an impending earthquake.
Yet in the minutes and hours before surging walls of water up to 9m (30ft) high travelling at approximately 300kmph smashed through coastlines, some animals seemed to sense impending peril and made an efforts to flee when humans stood there transfixed and uncomprehending.
Zoo animals ran into their shelters and refused to come out.
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Along India’s Cuddalore coast, where thousands of people perished, the Indo-Asian News service reported that buffaloes, goats, and dogs were found unharmed.
In the coastal village of Bang Koey in Thailand, locals reported a herd of buffalo by the beach suddenly pricking their ears, gazing out to sea, then stampeding to the top of a nearby hill a few minutes before the tsunami struck.
Survivors also reported seeing animals, such as cows, goats, cats and birds, deliberately moving inland shortly after the earthquake and before the tsunami came.
Many of those who survived ran along with these animals or immediately after.”
But these accounts about animal behavior before disasters have prompted some researchers to devote serious scientific attention to the theory that animals may have inbuilt systems which alert them to impending natural disasters.
It raises an intriguing question – could animals provide natural early warning systems for humans?
Alan Rabinowitz, director for science and exploration at the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society in New York, says animals can sense impending danger by detecting subtle or abrupt shifts in the environment.
Historical Evidence
The Earthquake of Helice, 373 B.C.
The earliest recorded reference to unusual animal behavior prior to a natural disaster dates back to 373 BC, when the Greek historian Thucydides reported rats, dogs, snakes and weasels deserting the city of Helice in the days before a catastrophic earthquake. Other reports dot history but the inference is subjective and may vary from researcher to researcher.
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The Earthquake of San Fransisco, 1906
Just prior to the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, horses whinnied or snorted before the shock and stampeded when the latter was felt, some falling owing to the commotion of the ground.
Pic courtesy- Respective owners
The Science Continues
Scientists haven’t found any signals that seem to occur consistently before big quakes so there is a growing willingness of some scientists to consider more unorthodox warning signals – such as animal behaviour.
Martin Wikelski from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany is credited for one of the most path breaking work studying animal behavior as an indicator to an imminent tremor event.
The study involved recording the movement patterns of different animals (cows, sheep and dogs) – a process known as biologging – on a farm in the earthquake-prone region of the Marches in central Italy. Collars with chips were attached to each animal, which sent movement data to a central computer every few minutes between October 2016 and April 2017.
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During this period, over 18,000 quakes in the region, from tiny tremors measuring just 0.4 magnitude up to a dozen quakes notching 4 or above – including the devastating magnitude 6.6 magnitude Norcia earthquake.
The researchers found evidence that the farm animals began to change their behaviour up to 20 hours before an earthquake.
“The closer the animals were to the epicentre of the impending shock, the earlier they changed their behaviour,” Wikelski said in 2020 when the study was released. “This is exactly what you would expect when physical changes occur more frequently at the epicentre of the impending earthquake and become weaker with increasing distance.”
Another study carried out by Wikelski monitoring the movements of tagged goats on the volcanic slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily also found the animals seemed to have an advance sense of when Etna was going to burst into life.
Over in South America, behavioural ecologist Rachel Grant has also found evidence of what might be triggering the changes in local animal behaviour, in the shape of a series of strong perturbations in local atmospheric electric charges every two to four minutes, starting two weeks before the earthquake.
A particularly large fluctuation was recorded around eight days before the Contamana earthquake – coinciding with the start of the second stage of the animals disappearing from view of motion tracking cameras
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Scientists are now exploring whether these electromagnetic perturbations in the atmosphere prior to earthquakes could be a warning sign of impending quakes which animals may be sensing.
Earthquakes result after severe stresses arise in deep rock – stresses known to create electronic charges called “positive holes”. These supposedly migrate from the crust to the Earth’s surface, where they ionise air molecules above where they appear. Such ionisation has been noted prior to quakes across the globe. As these positive holes flow, they also generate ultra-low frequency electromagnetic waves, which are probably affecting birds behavior before earthquake happens.
“Animals also contain a lot of iron, which is sensitive to magnetism and electric fields.”
ICARUS stands for International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space. Scientists taking part in the Icarus-initiative are working together to study the behavior of animals.
China, meanwhile, has already created a Quake Alert system based at its earthquake bureau in Nanning, monitoring the behavior of snakes in quake-prone region. Snakes possess a powerful array of sensory mechanisms geared to detecting tiny changes in aspects of their environment.
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“Of all the creatures on the earth, snakes are perhaps the most sensitive to earthquakes,” says Jiang Weisong, an ex-director of the Nanning bureau “When an earthquake is about to occur, snakes will move out of their nests, even in the cold of winter.”
Still, while we may not be able to talk to animals quite yet, perhaps it’s time to pay more attention to their warnings.
