# Can animals sense earthquakes? Yes!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-animals-sense-earthquakes-yes/476887>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [December 12, 2008, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-animals-sense-earthquakes-yes/476887 "2008-12-12T15:43:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2008, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-animals-sense-earthquakes-yes/476887/21 "2008-12-14T23:20:55Z")

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I think it’s supposed to be the first few letters of “quake”. 😉

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**Author:** ![RnBram](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ba8739/32.png) [@RnBram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RnBram)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-animals-sense-earthquakes-yes/476887/22 "2008-12-17T16:37:33Z")

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What’s with the Chinese report of snakes surfacing, before an earthquake, and then freezing to death, while at the same time birds sitting on nests flew off?

Unless the Chinese ‘seismologist’ observers were several degrees of latitude apart, bird eggs will have been laid in spring when freezing conditions would be a lot **less** likely.

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**Author:** ![Flipbustle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@Flipbustle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flipbustle)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-animals-sense-earthquakes-yes/476887/23 "2008-12-31T21:26:46Z")

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I know that four-footed animals, and people, can feel the ground quiver.  
However, a goldfish floating in water would not feel the same. Later, the water would slosh around and maybe slop over, thus spilling the little critter on the  
deck. Then he/she would get a jolt- - -minutes before the end, not by drowning  
but because the whole building collapsed on him/it. Does that answer your question ?

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**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-animals-sense-earthquakes-yes/476887/24 "2009-01-16T04:45:14Z")

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Related News.

From: [http://www.thelocal.se/16876/20090113/](http://www.thelocal.se/16876/20090113/)

> [@](#):
>
> Data gathered during Sweden’s mid-December earthquake shows that cows in Skåne barely noticed the shaking beneath their feet, disappointing researchers who suspected the animals had an innate ability to detect natural disasters.

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