Do animals get a "forewarning" prior to natural disasters?

[brentspeak]

I read somewhere that just before the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 struck, residents of the city witnessed large throngs of animals -- dogs, cows, horses, ducks, etc. -- hurriedly make their way up the city to higher ground. When the tsunami eventually struck, those animals didn't get wiped out.

Mother Nature's way of looking out for the animals?

[TK421]

1. They can hear things and see things that we can't....so it wouldn't

surprise me if they had some built-in warning system when something is wrong...

we may never know

[NightWatcher]

2. hell yes. in the great Atlanta Quake of 2003 (4.9) the cats went nuts about five seconds prior

we woke up to the cats going apeshit and then noticed that the apartment had started shaking

[NJmaverick]

3. I heard on one of the TV news trailers

that dogs (and other animals) have sub sonic hearing. They hear stuff we humans can't, in the very low range. So they will hear thunder storms before we do. It would stand to reason other disasters may have similar low frequency warnings.

[applegrove]

4. My cat tried hard to get me to hide in the closet with him as a hurricane approached.

I had left the windows open a little. When I closed the windows the cat calmed down. Must have been the air pressure that told him danger was on the way.

[Drunken Irishman]

5. I think so, but I'd wager more within a few minutes of the disaster hitting.

And not days.

I also hear right before an earthquake, everything gets extremely and eerily still.

[BarenakedLady]

6. It wouldn't surprise me.

Cows know when it's going to storm.

And what about dogs who know when their owners are going to have a seizure...or cats who know when someone is going to die...

Animals are more attuned to their senses than we are.

Of course that said, my dog Ben would still hump an armed intruder.

[Whoa_Nelly]

7. Had a parakeet one time

Right before a CA shake, he started sqawking somehing fierce.

Woke me up, and then about 10 seconds later the rumbler came through

[Inchworm]

8. Ants make higher mounds before a big rain

Well, Florida ants do.. on sidewalks :D

:hi:

[Kali]

9. they have senses that are better attuned to the natural world than most people

we mostly watch tee vee and talk on cell phones. They are in the world more. My dogs bark for days before the cottonwoods drop big limbs - I'm sure they hear the wood giving way. It has to be the same for earthquakes and severe weather. Many people can feel weather changes in their joints.

[mth44sc]

10. this one didn't

and for the turtle - this was most certainly a natural disaster...

[Orrex]

11. The 1755 earthquake is too far removed for us to use it as a reliable sample

However, many people will recall the observation that animals fled for the high ground prior to the tsunami of December 26, 2004. I recall numerous stories in the media about animals' "spooky" ability to foretell natural disasters.


Well, it turns out that the truth was considerably less spooky:
http://www.livescience.com/animals/050421_tsunami_myths.html


So, do animals get a "forewarning" prior to natural disasters? I don't doubt that they can perceive certain indicators that are obscure to humans: changes in air pressure; warning sounds that are inaudible to humans; disquieting scents; etc.

But there's nothing miraculous or supernatural about them, and there's certainly no reason to think that Mother Nature is looking out for them. Humans are far and away the most egregious natural disaster ever to befall the animal kingdom, and Mother Nature hasn't yet stepped in to look out for them in our case...

[brentspeak]

15. Very true. Human beings are animals' most dangerous foe of all.

[Mythsaje]

12. I wonder...

The last big Earthquake we had up here in the Puget Sound shocked the shit out of the cats as well as it did me and I had the distinct impression that the furry bastards blamed ME for it afterward.

[Rhiannon12866]

13. Yes, they do. I remember hearing how all the animals left the area before that recent tsunami.

I don't live in earthquake country, but several years ago we did have one. I was working nights, just getting into bed in the wee hours, when my little dog came racing in, leaned against me, shaking like a leaf. I barely had time to take it all in when the house started shaking, a lot. I grabbed my dog and raced to hide in the closet. It was a huge deal around here, since we don't get earthquakes, and it was very frightening. But my little dog knew well before I did and he warned me... :shrug: :loveya:

[SeattleGirl]

14. Mine do.

They have acted strangely before every earthquake we've had since we have belonged to them.

[deucemagnet]

16. I just watched a video about this kind of thing.

http://hollowvision.com/mind/the-extended-mind-experimental-evidence/

It's presented by a biologist, Rupert Sheldrake, who studies this sort of thing. He talks a lot about the subject and gives a lot of examples, but despite the text in the link, he doesn't actually give much in the way of experimental evidence. I'll have to look up his papers in PubMed sometime.

[NewJeffCT]

17. Wasn't there something about frogs in an earthquake in China?

but, the first time they tried a mass evacuation of the city, and the earthquake happened and everybody thought it was a miracle...

then, a year later, the frogs gave no warning and the same area was hit by a huge earthquake, killing 10s of thousands?