Animals prophesy earthquake

K.G.H. Munidasa

A stockbreeder in North China, a member of a peoples’ commune just 40 kilometres from the city of Tangshan, got out of bed before dawn on July 28, 1976 to feed his animals. When he walked inside the stable he found that two horses and two mules were jumping up and kicking in the air, in apparent distress.

Before long the animals broke loose and dashed outside. at that moment a dazzling white flash illuminated the sky, followed by ominous rumbling noises. The famous Tangshan earthquake of 7.8 magnitude had struck.

This occurrence came to light in a survey conducted by Chinese scientists of the earthquake-affected areas in and around Tangshan. The survey initiated shortly after the `quake covered Tangshan and 400 communes in 48 counties around the city.

The scientists were able to collect information on 2,093 incidents of unusual behaviour by animals in the time before the earthquake struck.

The stories were related by survivors of the devastating `quake themselves, during interviews and discussions. Close studies of the cases showed that 80 per cent of the incidents involved horses, donkeys, mules, cows, pigs, goats, dogs, cats and other domestic animals.

However, it was also found that just before the `quake wild weasels in their hundreds left their underground lairs, despite the presence of man, carrying their young either on their back or in the mouth. The fishes in aquariums became restive and those in ponds came to the surface of the water, dashed about aimlessly or leaped into the air.

Domestic goats belated mournfully refusing to go inside their pens, while those inside tried to get out. Cats ran about mewing desperately or even scratched their owners, while some picked up their kitten in the mouths and scampered outdoors.

The dogs scratched at the doors of houses to get inside, but when let in they barked furiously and even bit their owners. Some scurried away holding pups in their mouths. Pigs screamed and broke out from their sties, either by squeezing under grates or jumping over the walls. The chicken dashed out of the coops in the dead of night to perch on rooftops or trees.

In the countryside rats who were normally sensitive and wary, left their holes in droves and scampered to safety.

The survey revealed that the unusual behaviour of the animals reached its climax in the 24 hours immediately before the `quake. However, in previous earthquakes where foreshocks preceded the main `quake behaviourial variations in animals like rats, fish and snakes occurred 2 to 3 days before or even earlier.

Precursory signs

It was after the major earthquake in the Hsingtai county in Northern China in 1966 that the Chinese scientists initiated studies on the precursory signs of animals to predict earthquakes. It has been found that before the 6.8 magnitude Hsingtai `quake all the dogs at a village in the epicentre deserted their kennels and so survived the catastrophe.

Reactions

In the years following the Hsingtai earthquake a national retrospective survey was launched by Chinese scientists to study the animal behaviourial variations. They visited places which were hit by destructive earthquakes in the first half of 20th century, interviewing older people and gleaning whatever information that was available. In their preliminary report they identified 58 kinds of domestic and wild animals which had shown unusual behaviour before the `quakes hit.

It is on record that before the 8.5 magnitude earthquake, Chinese biggest, struck in Haiyauan in 1920 wolves ran about in packs and sparrows flew about in the air twittering wildly.

An old man got up at night to find out why his dogs were barking in a most unusual manner. No sooner had he left the house the `quake struck and he survived.

Dr. Eberhard Schmmdes of the Seismographic Observatory at Fuerstenfeldbruck is said to have received more than 70 letters from members of the public telling of unusual animal behaviour at the time of earthquakes in other parts of the world. According to these letters rabbits sought shelter, dogs got frightened and cats became nervous.

Dr. Eberhard, however does not believe that an early warning system based on peculiar animal reactions can be relied on. “However, it is known that some animals reacted to earth tremors 20 seconds earlier than man and registered movements of the earth man did notice,” he has contended.

There had been no serious research in this field. Yet, Munich Zoologist Dr. Theodor Haltenorth is of the opinion that domestic animals indicted by unusual behaviour, days and hours ahead of an impending `quake. His advice is to pay more attention to whatever animal you keep and make use of its forecasting ability.

In 1968, China established its first experimental station in Hsingtai for earthquake prediction, making use of observations on biological forms. A similar zone was set up in 1971 in Aksu, Sinkiang, where earthquakes were expected to occur. Biophysicists there experimented with about one-hundred pigeons.

Zoologists at Munich’s Heliabrunn Animal Park were once astonished to see that a two-metre long Arapaima (South American fresh water fish) had broken through the wire-mesh cover of the aquarium and perished.

The incident occurred shrewdly after 6 in the morning. Soon afterwards tremors were registered in Munich from an earthquake in the State of Baden-Wuerttmberg which shook the walls in the city and tore people from their sleep.

Tsunami calamity

According to a Thailand datelined Reuters news story, carried in a Lakan daily, tame elephants deployed as mounts for tourists at Khao lake beach resort started trumpeting the moment 9.0 magnitude earthquake cracked open the sea bed off Indonesia’s Sumatra Island, creating the tsunami.

The elephants soon calmed down, but started wailing again in about an hour later as the big wave came rushing towards them “Those with tourists aboard, others even lifting them off the ground with trunks onto their backs, headed for the jungle-clad hill behind the resort beach, where at least 3,800 people (more than half of them foreigners) would soon have been killed. The elephants who were not working broke their hefty chains and followed suit,” the report said.

They charged up the hill through the jungle and then stopped. The tsunami drove up to 1 km, in shore from the gently sloping beach and stopped short of where the elephants stood.

Sixth sense

Another Reuters news story from Johannesburg quoting Sri Lankan sources said that the giant waves, which killed over 24,000 people along the island’s coast had seemingly missed the wild beasts,with no dead animals having been found.

A Deputy Director of the Department of Wildlife H.D. Ratnayake had told the Reuters “No elephants are dead, not even a dead hare or rabbit. I think animals can sense disaster. They have a `sixth sense’ and known when things are happening.”

The notion of an animal sixth sense - or some other mythical power - is an enduring one which the evidence on Sri Lanka’s battered coast is likely to add to,” the news story concluded.

(Based on facts gleaned from books and other published sources).