10 Earthquakes Predicted by Animals

 

373 BC , Helice, Greece – People were amazed but didn’t know what to think when rats, snakes, weasels, beetles, centipedes and every other creature of that kind poured out of the city onto the road toward the hills of Corinth for five days.  Then, while the residents were sleeping during the night, an earthquake shook the city.  As the people tried to escape the ruins, a tsunami swept in, utterly destroying the city and ten Spartan ships that had anchored there.    Helike had been a center for the worship of Poseidon, Greek god of earthquakes and the sea.  At the time of Helike’s destruction, Plato was teaching in Athens and Aristotle was only 12.  The description was recorded by Aelian,  in De Natura animalium, book 11.   Helike Earthquake  The buried ruins were found in 2001.  Helike found.
Tokyo (Edo) Japan, 1855 and 1923 – In a Japanese myth, Namazu is a giant catfish that lives buried in mud and swishes his tail to cause earthquakes.  Catfish were also believed to be able to warn of danger or swallow water dragons.  Perhaps the strange behavior of real catfish before earthquakes led to these beliefs.  Catfish became unusually active just before the Edo Earthquake of  1855.  Days before the 1923 Tokyo Earthquake, catfish rose to the surface where they were easy to catch.  As recently as 1993 scientists in Japan were watching catfish in aquariums to try and predict earthquakes.  In 2005, Japanese Professor Yada published an article based on research done by sending kits to school children to monitor catfish.  He claims that high levels of catfish activity correspond with high levels of seismic activity 70% of the time.
1975 Haicheng, China, 7.3 on Richter scale – City of over a million people was evacuated because of the widespread reports of unusual behavior of animals.  Over a month before the quake, people saw snakes freeze to death because they came up out of their burrows into the snow.  For the hibernating snakes to emerge in the winter was suicide.   Cows and horses became restless and agitated.  Groups of rats appeared.  Chickens refused to enter their coops and geese took flight.  It is thought that some of this activity may have been due to foreshocks.
1976 Tangshan, China, 8.3 on Richter scale – Several days before the city was flattened, rats were seen running in panicked packs in broad daylight. Chickens refused to eat and more than a hundred skunks migrated.
2004 Thailand, Sri Lanka, Tsunami –  Elephants fled to higher ground, flamingos left low-lying breeding grounds and frantic bats flew away before the Tsunami struck.
2008 Mianzhu, China, 8.0 on Richter scale – Three days before the earthquake, thousands of toads appeared on the streets.  Zebras banged their heads on the door of the zoo.  Elephants swung their trunks, lions and tigers walked about when normally sleeping and peacocks began screeching.  Toads and zebras.
2009 L’Aguilla, Italy,  6.3 on Richter scale – A colony of toads was recorded by scientists as abandoning their pond days before earthquake.  In 3 days the population went from 96 toads to almost zero.  This was not just anecdotal, since the colony was being studied by a scientist.   NASA became interested and showed that rocks in ponds before earthquakes release charged particles that react with the air to become ions.  This increases the level of serotonin in the blood of animals.   Aquatic, semi-aquatic and burrowing animals may be able to sense the coming of an earthquake.  Toads in Italy
In Nanjing, China, farmers have been asked to observe their animals including chicken, fish, boars and toads for unusual behavior that might predict an earthquake.  Nanjing   At other places in China, monitoring stations have been set up to observe donkeys, peacocks, snakes, turtles, frogs, deer and more than 50 horses for abnormal behavior.
2011 Peru, 7.0 on Richter scale – Science has confirmed that in the days and weeks before an earthquake some animals do behave differently.  When rocks below the surface are stressed, they release positive ions.  It is theorized that the animals are not trying to escape danger, but want to get away from the positive ions that are released before earthquakes.  Using motion sensitive cameras in the Yanachaga National Park in Peru, scientists found even as long as 3 weeks before a magnitude 7 earthquake, animals began behaving differently.  The closer it came to the time of the earthquake the fewer animals were sighted, until, beginning a week before the earthquake, no animals were sighted at all!   The rodents were the first to disappear.  This actually fits with ancient stories of rats disappearing from cities before an earthquake.  Other animals that were extremely sensitive were ground birds and armadillos.  Peru Study
Sea of Ortaz, earthquake – In Tzoladia, horses became agitated, tossing their heads, stamping their hooves and ramming chests against stall doors.  Catfish floated on the surface of the Lanaduk River during daylight, so they could be easily speared.  In the underground city of Trenggol, everyone hibernating awakened. Yakamas, cows, goats, sheep, pigs and dogs called out and then suddenly became quiet.   Just outside the caves, an unusual number of lizards scurried across the ground.   On the mudflats of Waduk, hundreds of worms squirmed around on the surface while hordes of frogs hopped away to the hills and snakes seemed to be everywhere.  Outside Mazorka, flocks of birds rose to the sky, wolves howled  and yakamas bleated.  Wild animals fled from the ravine.  In the Vargarian Woods flocks of birds flew away.  Finally, in Waduk it seemed as if all the birds from all the islands headed for the skies at once.  Road to Tzoladia

 

 

How many of those clues of animal behavior did you spot?