Do the buffalo and chickens in Simeulue have a sixth sense? There were also reports from Sri Lanka at the time that the elephants had fled into the mountains that morning. Most scientists, whether earthquake researchers, behavioral scientists, or physicists, distance themselves from phrases like the “seventh sense.” It is not known what causes different animals to behave so unusually or what “unusual” actually means. So there’s nothing concrete that can be measured to produce hard data.
Predicting earthquakes with snakes
In China, researchers are still trying. By the 1970s, they had built a network of animal control stations. In 1975, a massive 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck the city of Haicheng. The researchers predicted this correctly and evacuated the entire city in time. This is also possible because the snakes were seen crawling out of their hibernating burrows before the earthquake. However, a year later, another devastating earthquake occurred. A quarter of a million people died, and official animal control paid no attention to anything.
In the 1970s, a European became interested in the phenomenon too: when physicist Helmut Trebiutsch interviewed people there after the devastating earthquake in Italy, they also noticed the unusual behavior of animals before the earthquake: “They are mostly wild animals, namely mice. , which left and Weasel mice, as well as bats, ran out of their house. Domestic animals react excitedly: chickens fly in the trees, horses try to run away. Tributsch tried to find a plausible explanation. What’s interesting is what satellite data later shows via infrared imagery: Before an earthquake, the temperature of the area around the epicenter appears to increase. “People think that gas is coming out of the ground and creating a kind of greenhouse effect, and you can see it from above like it’s heating up,” explains Trebuch. To this day, he believes that some animals can sense the gas.
Lele – Japanese god of earthquakes
In Japan, fish have been observed jumping out of the water before earthquakes. Lele is traditionally considered a kind of earthquake god. At the turn of the millennium, Japanese physicist Motogi Ikea experimented with catfish and electromagnetic waves in the laboratory and was able to show how sensitive the fish’s interactions were. Electromagnetic waves are associated with earthquakes, but Ikea is often ridiculed for its research.
Wildlife biologists know that deer and foxes also have subtle sensors, for example when the weather changes. They hypothesized that animals could react to changes in electrical charge in the air so as to anticipate upcoming Foehn-like weather changes. Just: How can we reliably measure and monitor animal behavior due to widespread phenomena?
High technology should help understand animals
Martin Wikelski of the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior is trying to do this with high-tech: He equips birds, elephants, farm animals, and bats with tiny transmitters that document where and how they move. He believes it makes sense to continue this research and tag and monitor animals of various species in potential earthquake zones. “We don’t yet know what they feel, how they feel and when they feel it, but there are very clear signs that animals see shadows there. And they do it communally, in herds,” said Wikelski.
With years of data collected, one could—besides seismic observations—one day use animals as early warning systems.
