Re: tsunami impact on animals

Don Winterstein wrote:

> Seismologist Chris Chapman was vacationing at a hotel about 30 km
> north of Galle, Sri Lanka, when the tsunami hit. Among his comments:
>
> "We heard two interesting stories about animals. An Englishman living
> with a Sri Lankan family near Matara fled to high ground when an alarm
> about the approaching wave was raised (they must have had a warning
> wave as we did). When he arrived, he was surprised to find the
> cattle, which roam freely, already there. Despite the utter
> devastation, no dead animals have been found in Yala National Park."
>
> Apparently the cattle were domesticated--but free.
>
> Chapman's "warning wave" was a precursor: "...The sea slowly rose a
> few metres to the level of the hotel's swimming pool and a small wave
> gently rolled through the ... hotel lobby." On seeing this he
> offhandedly remarked to his wife that there must have been an
> earthquake in the Indian Ocean. When he soon after noted the
> appreciable retreat of water from the beach, he had the hotel warn
> everyone to stay off the beach and head for high ground. No lives
> were lost at their location, and only minor injuries sustained.
>
> Although there's considerable anecdotal evidence, controlled studies
> to evaluate whether animals can sense impending earthquakes so far
> have proved negative. In this case the
> animals presumably felt the seismic waves from the earthquake,
> which would have arrived appreciably before the ocean wave. The
> animals apparently sought high ground in response. There's no known
> mechanism that would have allowed them to detect the tsunami itself in
> advance.
>
> Chapman's comments imply he didn't feel the quake himself.
>
> Don
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* Randy Isaac <mailto:rmisaac@bellatlantic.net>
> *To:* asa@calvin.edu <mailto:asa@calvin.edu>
> *Sent:* Saturday, January 08, 2005 5:06 PM
> *Subject:* tsunami impact on animals
>
> Last night on Larry King Live, Deepak Chandra stated that "....no
> animals perished in the tsunami. The elephants, rabbits, etc. all
> fled the coast.......". Presumably he was referring only to
> undomesticated animals. There seems to be a general
> public perception that animals can sense a pending earthquake
> although I don't know of any credible scientific studies
> confirming it. Do any of you know of any reliable evidence of
> unique animal behavior wrt the tsunami? If so, is there any
> insight regarding the mechanism?
>
> Randy
>
I find Don's comments a very plausibible explanation -- the animals
deteced seismic waves at frequencies and amplitudes to which humans are
insensitive. I would guess that the animals would not make an explicit
connection with the need to go to higher ground. Rather, they would
merely become disturbed and move away from exposed areas. That would
mean that they would move away from the coast, and thereby automatically
move towards higher ground or more dense vegetation that would provide
protection from a tsumami.
Incidentally, I read somewhere of a report from East Africa (I think)
that some hippopotami were swept out to sea. It is understandable that
because they were in a river they would not have picked up the seismic
vibrations that are restricted to dry land.
Don Nield
Received on Sun Jan 9 19:02:13 2005