# Do animals have a sixth sense (they all escaped the tsunami)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 31, 2004, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363 "2004-12-31T02:25:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2004, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363/21 "2004-12-31T18:30:49Z")
> [@badmana](#): > > And of course, just how large a population of rabbits existed in the city? It’s not the city, but Yala National Park, a wildlife reserve. > [@jjimm](#): > > As for animals and earthquakes: why not? There is absolutely tons of anecdote to show that animals react bizarrely before quakes; I’d guess at a heightened sense of hearing and smell. A scientific study might be quite difficult to do, given the capricious nature of earthquakery. Whenever a big earthquake hits Japan (fairly often) there’s always tons of stories about animals going apeshit some hours before. I know some scientists over here _are_ studying this behaviour and some think it might have to do with magnetic disturbances. In one tv show (yeah, I know), they showed an experiment where various insects were subjected to ultra-low frequency magnetic field variations, of the same frequency that often occurs before large earthquakes. They started exhibiting the same sort of behaviour - rolling on their backs, trying to climb out of the vivarium - that pet owners reported. I found a lengthy article (pdf!!!) covering the topic of earthquake prediction and animal perception. There’s no doubt that in some cases magnetic disturbances occur before earthquakes, though we don’t know how. There’s also no question that some animals can perceive those changes. In that sense, the talk of “sixth sense” isn’t too far-fetched. Whether that has anything to do with giant waves, I don’t know, but there is at least some research on this topic. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2004, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363/22 "2004-12-31T18:34:28Z")
on [www.digitalglobe.com](http://www.digitalglobe.com) there is a satellite picture of the water receding 343 meters from the shore. there was a clip on cnn about elephants and thier ability to hear very low frequency sound. perhaps they heard a rumble that others couldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![dare\_devil007](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@dare\_devil007](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dare_devil007)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2004, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363/23 "2004-12-31T18:34:52Z")
I know there’s a phenomenon regarding animals and this “extra sensory perception” that they have, but the actual name escapes me (it’s like animal premonitions, basically). Anyways, my history teacher told me about this and he said that in Rome (or some town near Rome), some time ago, a man was sitting outside his home when he noticed all the dogs, cats, rats, rabbits, and other animals in the town were all moving in one direction and leaving the town. A few days later, an earthquake hit the town. I have no doubt that the animals sensed vibrations underneath the earth and fled. The animals living in the areas that were hit by the tsunami probably did the same thing. I’m sorry for the vagueness of my post. I just thought I’d add my one cent, but hopefully, there’s someone who knows the name of this premonitory animal behaviour who will enlighten us. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2004, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363/24 "2004-12-31T19:46:12Z")
> [@dare\_devil007\_](#): > > I’m sorry for the vagueness of my post. I just thought I’d add my one cent, but hopefully, there’s someone who knows the name of this premonitory animal behaviour who will enlighten us. See the link I posted above. I’ll quote. > [@](#): > > Virtually all animals possess instinctive responses to escape from predators and (for land animals) from fire; in humans these responses are known as panic and are associated with the rapid release of adrenaline, which heightens sensory awareness and temporarily blocks sensation of pain. Numerous observations exist of animals displaying panic in the few seconds prior to the onset of strong ground shaking. Tributsch (1982) lists many such examples, including dogs barking, nervous cats jumping out of windows, birds screaming, rats running out of their holes, bees swarming, etc. Such behavior immediately prior to an earthquake is not difficult to explain, as seismic P waves travel faster through the crust than the associated S waves by roughly 2–4 km/sec. If organisms are sensitive enough to detect vibrations accompanying the arrival of P waves, that sense could provide > enough of a warning to trigger a death-avoiding response immediately prior to the arrival of the more damaging S waves. To this, the author of the article mentions that the following phenomena occur prior to earthquakes and are perceptible by various animals: > [@](#): > > As already noted the IASPEI preliminary list of signifi-cant earthquake precursors includes five geophysical nominations, three of which are seismic in nature (foreshocks, preshocks, and seismic quiescence before major aftershocks). The other two relate to a decrease in radon concentration and an increase in ground water levels (Wyss, 1997). As noted by Wyss (1997), this list does not preclude the existence of other geophysical or geochemical precursors; it simply represents the set of lucky observations obtained so far that meet minimal thresholds for statistical reliability. > (snip) > at least four (other) possible candidates for animal sensitivity can be gleaned: (1) ground tilting, (2) humidity changes, (3) electrical currents, and (4) magnetic field variations. ---
**Author:** ![jester21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed655f/32.png) [@jester21](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jester21)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2004, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363/25 "2004-12-31T22:02:59Z")
> [@Kiminy](#): > > I’ve heard stories from 9/11 that employers actually told employees to stay at their desks when the fire alarms went off in the twin towers, even AFTER feeling the shocks of the airplanes hitting the building. > > Granted, more than 90% of fire alarms are false alarms, but I’d hate to be caught in one of the few real ones. as i recall… the building administrators DID tell the occupants to stay put at first… IIRC it was to prevent a panic… it was assumed, initially, that the building could withstand the impact just fine. Which it could actually… it was the resulting fires that destroyed the buildings (because of sub-standard construction and design, typical of modern contracting, but i digress). ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2004, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363/26 "2004-12-31T23:36:27Z")
**Jester** , the WTC design and construction was NOT “substandard”. It was designed to withstand the impact of a 707 (the largest airliner in existance at the time of its construction) and had what was, at the time, believed to be adequate fireproofing. It is hardly the fault of the WTC designers if a group of people _delibrately_ crashed two airplanes even larger than the 707 into the structure. At that, it DID withstand the impact - one larger than the design specifications considered. It held together long enough for thousands of people to escape. Truth is, I’m not sure that we _could_ design a building to completely withstand such an impact followed by such a fire even with 30 more years of advancing technology to work with. ---
**Author:** ![Josh\_dePlume](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Josh\_dePlume](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Josh_dePlume)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363/27 "2005-01-01T00:26:46Z")
> [@Tomcat](#): > > You don’t see animals running into burning houses to save their kids…but humans do it regularly. You do see, for example, herd animals get between fierce predators and their kids. Seems analogous to me. ---
**Author:** ![Arwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Arwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arwin)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363/28 "2005-01-01T00:30:24Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > not sure that we _could_ design a building to completely withstand such an impact followed by such a fire even with 30 more years of advancing technology to work with. Yes, we can, and the danger of heat was also known before the event took place. But that’s another story. As far as the animals, I agree with the post two up, but I would like to add one important thing. Even if humans cannot perceive certain things, we can perceive animals perceiving these things. But our strength is sometimes also our weakness - we are able to learn to marginalise our instincts. The whole nature versus nurture thing is one of the most interesting and compelling aspects of human beings, and it plays a central role in many, many social issues and often plays a central role in art. (as an aside, the dogs of Phucket, where were they supposed to go?) ---
**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2005, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363/29 "2005-01-02T07:07:43Z")
I saw an interview with Jack Hanna ,who I think is the curator at the San Diego Zoo, where he explained that possibly the elephants sensed the quake through their sensitive feet and were wary. This wariness was probably sensed by other animals and when the Tsunami began the local sea bird population got excited ?telegraphing? the all is not well message to all that were paying attention. Seems like a pretty good explanation to me. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2005, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363/30 "2005-01-02T18:45:12Z")
**Jack Hanna** is Director Emeritus of the Columbus Zoo, Columbus, Ohio. [http://www.jackhanna.com/aboutjack2.htm](http://www.jackhanna.com/aboutjack2.htm) ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2005, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363/31 "2005-01-02T20:30:10Z")
What are you people talking about? Maybe CNN needs to talk to the AP. From today’s Cleveland Plain Dealer, in a story from the Associated Press: “Island officials say at least 3,754 people were missing amid crumbled homes, downed trees and mounds of dead animals.” The islands referred to are the Andaman and Nicobar islands. Mounds of dead animals sounds like some animals didn’t get the memo. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2005, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363/32 "2005-01-02T21:38:49Z")
> [@kittenblue](#): > > What are you people talking about? Maybe CNN needs to talk to the AP. > > From today’s Cleveland Plain Dealer, in a story from the Associated Press: > > “Island officials say at least 3,754 people were missing amid crumbled homes, downed trees and mounds of dead animals.” > > The islands referred to are the Andaman and Nicobar islands. > > Mounds of dead animals sounds like some animals didn’t get the memo. Yeah. I have cats. I’ve had many cats in my time. The cats are excellent at spotting evil, invisible creatures outside the windows and hissing at them. They also attack evil invisible creatures on the floor. And they eat carpet lint and twist-ties (no matter how hard we try to keep them from getting a hold of 'em.) They have shown no signs thus far of any mystical or seemingly-mystical abilities to predict the future. On the plus side, they eat the carpet lint that we’d have to vacuum up otherwise. It’s silly to argue about this without having any evidence that it occurs in the first place. “No reports of dead animals” implies that the rescuers are gonna be radioing back to base to report every rabbit or deer they find dead. And no doubt not every rescue worker has been interviewed, and a lot of 'em probably don’t particularly remember the particulars of dead animals, if they’re looking for living people. It’s very nice to say that animals have a mysterious sixth sense or some particularly acute ability to detect ground vibrations or wind direction or great disturbances in the Force. But just because it’s “common knowledge” doesn’t mean it’s true - after all, common knowledge during the Middle Ages held that dogs and cats spread the plague. I can’t believe none of the people here claiming that their animals have predicted disasters are capable of understanding the concept of confirmation bias. You remember the events that were preceded by Fluffy acting out-of-sorts and don’t remember the ones that Fluffy had to be carried out of because she was sleeping at the time. You’re not any more immune to this phenomenon than anyone else. It’s unbelievable to me how many people are so mentally lazy that they figure they have some miraculous ability to be free of all the misperceptions and slipshod observations that they know everyone else is subject to. Find some actual, hard evidence, and explain away the other sources that discuss the mounds of dead animals. Or else just go away, and try to remember that people are animals too, and despite the concept’s popularity, it’s not necessarily true that we’ve lost seemingly-magical abilities that every other critter around still has. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2005, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363/33 "2005-01-02T23:59:49Z")
> [@kittenblue](#): > > What are you people talking about? Maybe CNN needs to talk to the AP. > > From today’s Cleveland Plain Dealer, in a story from the Associated Press: > > “Island officials say at least 3,754 people were missing amid crumbled homes, downed trees and mounds of dead animals.” > > The islands referred to are the Andaman and Nicobar islands. > > Mounds of dead animals sounds like some animals didn’t get the memo. Ahem! From my earlier post, “I expect when the whole story is figured out there will be plenty of dead animals around.” ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363/34 "2005-01-03T05:49:59Z")
> [@Tomcat](#): > > You don’t see animals running into burning houses to save their kids…but humans do it regularly. Ha! Never heard of [Scarlett](http://www.cnn.com/US/9606/28/scarlett.day/), the heroic cat from Brooklyn who saved her five kittens from a burning building? Tsk tsk, a guy with your username! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363/35 "2005-01-03T06:08:41Z")
Most dogs that I’ve had will run and hide under a bed or something when it thunders. Typically they will start acting this way sometime before I can hear thunder, but that’s because they have better hearing than me and have heard thunder even farther off. I don’t think it’s “crazy” or “mystical” to believe that some animals with certain heightened sense can’t hear sounds or other things that may be associated with earthquakes. ---
**Author:** ![Weeks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbce88/32.png) [@Weeks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weeks)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363/36 "2005-01-03T14:42:11Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#): > > Most dogs that I’ve had will run and hide under a bed or something when it thunders. Typically they will start acting this way sometime before I can hear thunder, but that’s because they have better hearing than me and have heard thunder even farther off. > > I don’t think it’s “crazy” or “mystical” to believe that some animals with certain heightened sense can’t hear sounds or other things that may be associated with earthquakes. Well, that would explain why a dog would hide under the bed when he hears the sound of a distant tsunami, but I don’t see dogs runnung to higher ground when they hear thunder. I for one have seen dead animals in the ruins on television. Next time you’re watching feed of clean up efforts, tear your eyes off the dead baby and look around. You’ll see them. ---
**Author:** ![Tomcat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Tomcat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tomcat)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363/37 "2005-01-03T16:51:50Z")
> [@Josh\_dePlume](#): > > You do see, for example, herd animals get between fierce predators and their kids. Seems analogous to me. Not really. Herd animals do that because that strategy has a better chance of survival for all. Running away from predators as a large herd animal will generally get the young separated and eaten. A closer analogy would be if a herd animal ran into a feeding frenzy to save their young…and that does not happen, AFAIK. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363/38 "2005-01-03T17:02:02Z")
> [@Weeks](#): > > Well, that would explain why a dog would hide under the bed when he hears the sound of a distant tsunami, but I don’t see dogs runnung to higher ground when they hear thunder. Widen the loop just a bit. Under the bed = place of safety. Animals are quite leery of unusual occurances, noises, sights etc. and tend to run away from them toward what looks like a safer place, the "under the bed’ being merely illustrative. And, for zoo animals near the coast, a noise coming from the coast would cause them to run away from it. When you are near the coast, away from it is toward higher ground. In any case, it seems we agree that there will turn out to be plenty of dead animals, as a couple of posts have already stated. TV news broadcasts concentrate on what happened to the people and seldom, if ever, pause to show a picture of a dead rat. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363/39 "2005-01-03T17:03:37Z")
Good Lord. My roommate (40 years old) just came home from work and proudly announced that “no animals died as a result of the tsunamis, they all ran uphill.” Is someone actually reporting this on the news? I don’t know if he’s trying to bait me, or he really believes everything he hears. ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2005, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363/40 "2005-01-03T17:28:12Z")
> [@justwannano](#): > > I saw an interview with Jack Hanna ,who I think is the curator at the San Diego Zoo, where he explained that possibly the elephants sensed the quake through their sensitive feet and were wary. This wariness was probably sensed by other animals and when the Tsunami began the local sea bird population got excited ?telegraphing? the all is not well message to all that were paying attention. Seems like a pretty good explanation to me. Sounds more like a Disney plot to me. The elephants were wary? Of what? From where? Never mind, they were being wary and they told the rhinos who told the zebras who told the cats who told the family of mice who live under the barn. The ‘sixth sense’ explanation is nonsense. There are few reports of dead animals because no-one is looking for dead animals. The animals that survived managed to do so in exactly the same way as the humans. The only advantage animals have is they aren’t as complacent as humans when it comes to danger. When something’s big, loud and scary they don’t wait around thinking nothing bad is going to happen. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363.md?page=3)