After a series of intense earthquakes struck Italy last year, Martin Wikelski, a German scientist, rushed there to test an age old theory of whether or not animals can predict natural disasters. Wikelski tagged multiple farm animals on Pieve Torina, a farm in the Marches region of central Italy, to monitor their behavior looking for some drastic change in a consistent way before an earthquake.
The goal of this experiment was to hopefully find a change consistent in many animals and use that to predict several types of natural disasters and potentially save hundreds of thousands of lives. The data that Wikelski was able to reveal to the public showed a good deal of the animals moving in a distinctive way hours before each earthquake. He stated that “the animals predicted the major volcanic eruptions during these two years between four to six hours before”. Most of the animals did approximately the same thing before the disasters: “At night, the animals woke up and nervously walked around, and in daytime, they moved to a safe area”. Wikelski is now moving to publish his data to save hundreds of thousands of lives in the near future. So just remember, not only do animals make great pets, they could also save your life someday.
Povoledo, Elisabetta. "Can Animals Predict Earthquakes? Italian Farm Acts as a Lab to Find Out." The New York Times. The New York Times, 17 June 2017. Web. 19 June 2017.
The natural disasters tested were earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. This makes me believe they have a better sense of vibrations from the ground than humans. I would love to see a test where animals are placed in a area with a very subtly shaking platform and a still piece of ground. If the animals move from the subtly shaking ground than it could help prove further that the animals can predict earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Knowledge of which animals will react to seismic vibrations may improve odds of survival for many and that would be cool.
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ReplyDeleteIt is satisfying to see someone do a blurb on this topic as I have wondered if this is true as well. By the sounds of the data that Wikelski conducted, animals clearly must feel a change in temperature or wind in the air that makes them nervous and move around. It would be interesting to find out what they are specifically sensing that triggers them to freak out a little.
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