# Do animals have a sixth sense (they all escaped the tsunami)?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363>\
**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:** 4\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363/61 "2005-01-05T07:52:59Z")

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> [@CC](#):
>
> #1) I understand the term “sixth sense” is supposed to refer to senses beyond touch, hearing, vision, smell, and taste. Perhaps those five terms are used because we have discovered detector neurons and specific organs associated with them, but then shouldn’t touch be divided into many different senses? And what about the sense of time? Just because we haven’t found a place in the brain where our sense of time is located, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. And the sense of direction…where’s that?

Modern medicine can describe many more than five senses, as you say. But “sixth sense” has come to mean the (bogus) ability to somehow percieve things outside of normal physical processes. You know, like in _The Sixth Sense_.

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**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2005, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363/62 "2005-01-05T23:09:25Z")

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Ahh. Actually, I thought that it had been moved FROM General Questions to some other forum, which is why I asked the question, although now that I think about it, why would it be listed here if that were the case? never mind

turns out that although all of us are smarter than any of us, some of us are really dumn.

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**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363/63 "2005-01-07T02:06:59Z")

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NBC News reported a story tonight on work elephants working next to a resort that was destroyed by the tsunamis. Apparently five to ten minutes before the tsunamis struck, all the elephantas grew restless, disobeyed their handlers’ directions, broke their control chains and headed for high ground.

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**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sixth-sense-they-all-escaped-the-tsunami/282363/64 "2005-01-07T02:32:23Z")

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> [@Duckster](#):
>
> NBC News reported a story tonight on work elephants working next to a resort that was destroyed by the tsunamis. Apparently five to ten minutes before the tsunamis struck, all the elephantas grew restless, disobeyed their handlers’ directions, broke their control chains and headed for high ground.

Gee only 3 days after CNN

[Quote =justwannano]

CNNs Wolf Blitzer just had a short blurp on his show about elephants. One animal handler couldn’t figure why his critters were so excited. 5 minutes before the tsunami the Elephants broke their chains and began running. 5 minutes later the elephant handler said he was running too.

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