Tuesday 4 January 2005

How Did Animals Escape Tsunami?

Wild animals seem to have escaped the Indian Ocean tsunami, adding weight to notions they possess a sixth sense for disasters, experts said 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," said H.D. Ratnayake, deputy director of Sri Lanka's Wildlife Department.


If true, this is really amazing. Most news reports are, understandably, focussed on the human lost. Are there any further reports to support this?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think this or or this might answer your question (though it doesn't really resolve the issue... ;)

-anna

Anonymous said...

It's pretty well known that animals are able to sense things that people cannot. Animals can sense sickness in a human. A group of birds can sense bad weather approaching, and will subsequently refrain from flight as much as possible, and in extreme cases, remove themselves from the area.

An impending earthquake, at the basic level causes a small amount of vertigo, and a bit of nausea that humans don't often identify, but animals are much more susceptible to.

Cases like these are documented all the time, without explanation.

The natural world has benefits and wonders that we can only imagine -- if only we'd stop trying to destroy it in the name of progress.

Anonymous said...

The other thing I found fascinating it how in all those photos of areas where the buildings were flattened, so many palm trees were still standing.

Perhaps buildings should have roots, not foundations?