Hmmmm... now that I think about it, you never saw any squirrls or chipmunks around at Kerry rallies, didya?Excellent observation.
But I think all the local animals fled when they saw the approaching RATs :)
Posted on 12/30/2004 3:15:26 AM PST by kattracks
JOHANNESBURG, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Wild animals seem to have escaped the Indian Ocean tsunami, adding weight to notions they possess a "sixth sense" for disasters, experts said on Thursday.Sri Lankan wildlife officials have said the giant waves that killed over 24,000 people along the Indian Ocean island's coast seemingly missed wild beasts, with no dead animals found.
"No elephants are dead, not even a dead hare or rabbit. I think animals can sense disaster. They have a sixth sense. They know when things are happening," H.D. Ratnayake, deputy director of Sri Lanka's Wildlife Department, said on Wednesday.
The waves washed floodwaters up to 3 km (2 miles) inland at Yala National Park in the ravaged southeast, Sri Lanka's biggest wildlife reserve and home to hundreds of wild elephants and several leopards. "There has been a lot of anecdotal evidence about dogs barking or birds migrating before volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. But it has not been proven," said Matthew van Lierop, an animal behaviour specialist at Johannesburg Zoo.
"There have been no specific studies because you can't really test it in a lab or field setting," he told Reuters.
Other authorities concurred with this assessment.
"Wildlife seem to be able to pick up certain phenomenon, especially birds ... there are many reports of birds detecting impending disasters," said Clive Walker, who has written several books on African wildlife.
Animals certainly rely on the known senses such as smell or hearing to avoid danger such as predators.
The notion of an animal "sixth sense" -- or some other mythical power -- is an enduring one which the evidence on Sri Lanka's battered coast is likely to add to.
The Romans saw owls as omens of impending disaster and many ancient cultures viewed elephants as sacred animals endowed with special powers or attributes.
The tsunami was triggered by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean on Sunday. It killed tens of thousands of people in Asia and East Africa.
Hmmmm... now that I think about it, you never saw any squirrls or chipmunks around at Kerry rallies, didya?
No sixth sense required for either of those things...
I'm sure the feminists love this kind of story.
He looked like kind of a nut, but he did have some facts at his disposal...
I don't see why this is a "sixth" sense at all--if it shows to be a genuine phenomena, it should be simple to explain. Most animals already have senses better than our own--smell, hearing--and might well be better at paying attn to them.
There is a dead animal in the gruesome photo on this thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1310424/posts?page=5#5 at reply #5. At first I thought it was a baby, but the feet look much too small to be anything but a cat or dog.
THE PHOTO IS VERY DISTURBING. Don't go if you think it may upset you. The animal is in the bottom left-hand corner.
When I was in High School in North Carolina, we had a hurricane coming up the coast and about to strike us.
The birds just went nuts. We had twenty or thirty blackbirds which flew down our chimney an hour or so before the storm hit.
Wierd. I think they responded to changes in barometric pressure.
I agree only you left out hunters. I have many times smelled my quarry before sighting them, my broother still thinks I am making this up. On another note about animal sith sense. Most seem to be posting about animals other senses and I indeed believe that these basic senses 9 times out of 10 is what enables the animal to survive. It is just a higher level of sense. Wheteher we are talking about a Deers ability to see movement at great distance or a Turkeys ability to pinpoint your location from a single cluck on the call.
The ability for the animals to see or hear the coing waves or the initial quake I would argue would not be part of the 6th sense that I believe they have.
Their sixth sense comes in, most of the time in my experience as a sportsman, when you are in the field with out a gun and just observing nature you can walk right up on them and they will not spook. But put a gun in your hand and try it. I read once where the vibe if you could call it that, put out by predators is picked up by animals of prey and acted upon. You can believe this or not as I have no way of proving it other than field experience that could be subject to many other factors.
We have most of the same sub-sonic detetcion abilities. Of course we do -- mammals are mammals. If dogs or elephants can have it we'll have it in some lesser degree. However we overwhelm ourselves in the speech and day-time visual channels. It takes a lot of practise to develop those VLF sensing abilities. I've read that many of the blind do. I've tried to develop my own.
Hmmmm... now that I think about it, you never saw any squirrls or chipmunks around at Kerry rallies, didya?Excellent observation.
But I think all the local animals fled when they saw the approaching RATs :)
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