Do Animals Sense Earthquakes?

Have you ever happened to arrive at the corner of your house and your dog starts barking? Or is your cat waiting at the door before you walk in? Do they smell you or can they hear your voice? What is certain is that animals have much sharper senses than human beings, and so they have the ability to sense smells and things from several meters away.

And what about earthquakes and tsunamis? If we have seen images of some of these natural disasters, we always see that animals run before people. And more than that: the number of deaths is much higher taking into account people compared to animals in this type of circumstance.

The question that arises is: can animals sense earthquakes? According to NASA, the answer is brief, clear and concise: yes, they can.

NASA explains how animals can sense earthquakes

When an earthquake, tsunami or tsunami occurs, the earth’s surface undergoes changes, which are detected by animals. So much so that the idea of ​​copying this instinct from animals and introducing it into a detector that can alert about this type of natural disaster before it occurs is being evaluated.

We know it’s a bit difficult to do this, as it is a highly sensitive instinct that cannot be copied, but we wish they could, as many human lives could be saved thanks to this initiative.

Let’s look at some examples that reaffirm the fact that animals feel an earthquake before it occurs.

Haicheng, China

In this story, snakes are the protagonists. In the year 1975 all snakes escaped from their cages exactly one month before a major earthquake. It wouldn’t make sense to do something like that, as snakes don’t migrate and always stay in their homes, but it felt like a plague for which they found an explanation after a month.

Yanachaga National Park, Peru

In 2011 there was an earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter scale. A few weeks earlier, cameras had been placed in this park to observe the animals’ rhythm. Every day about 18 animals passed through this place, while six days before the earthquake this number was reduced to three.

U.S

While it wasn’t an especially bad earthquake, a Labrador dog that was in an office as part of the PetFriendly program could sense the catastrophe before it happened.

He was sitting quietly when he lowered his muzzle to the ground for a second, and a moment later he lifted his ears and started running. At that moment the tremor started and all the people started to run. We leave a video below so you can see the scene.

But in addition to snakes and dogs, there are other animals that can sense natural disasters before they occur, not just earthquakes.

Animals that can sense disaster

cows

Cows are able to recognize an earthquake up to 6 days before it happens. Cows demonstrate this by greatly reducing their milk production. This is due to the great stress that an earthquake causes them, and was proven by what happened in Japan in 2011.

Albatross

These birds have an incredible ability to sense changes in atmospheric and water pressure, and so it is assumed that they are able to sense a hurricane. When there is an earthquake they take off and go as far as possible to find a place where they can take refuge.

bees

They are able to sense when it is going to rain due to their sensitivity to moisture. When they sense that a storm will occur, they return to their home in search of refuge.

elephants

Their large ears allow them to perceive sounds at a distance unimaginable to humans. This was seen in the tsunami that hit Thailand, before which the elephants fled to highlands as they could predict the disaster.

Cats

They go crazy when they feel phenomena like earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. Cats have a special sensitivity not only to sounds but also to feel the deformity of the earth.

After seeing this, we can only say one thing: wherever you are, if you notice that an animal got very nervous and started to run, run too!