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| Topic: CAN ANIMALS PREDICT DISASTERS | |
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http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/02/can-animals-foresee-natural-disasters.php I thought this was interesting |
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I found this to be interesting.
What is the sensory mechanism of animals that controls their responses to changes related to an impending earthquake? As mentioned earlier, the behavior of an animal might be subject to changes in the magnetic field preceding a major earthquake and such changes may be sensed by energy transfer at the electron level which, in turn, cause changes in the cellular behavior, or response. The living cell is essentially an electrical device and a micromolecular structure, and the sensory organs are all interconnected. Electromechanic changes occurring prior to the occurrence of a large earthquake may be sensed by certain animals and filtered, then instinctively interpreted. Thus animals may have the means and sensitivity to sort out and discriminate the threatening precursory signals of an impending earthquake, thus activating a behavior pattern for survival. These precursory electromagnetic or electromechanic changes which precede an earthquake, although mixed with background noise, must be filtered by animals and coordinated through their sensory response to the total environment. Thus, behavior is determined by the sensitivity of the different component parts of the living system to the surrounding medium. Experiments with new instruments and electronic solid state sensors are being used now to determine animal response to impending catastrophic occurrences. The benefit from such research would be in duplicating the sensory responses of animals to construct equally responsive instruments that can record or monitor these precursory changes. Thus, observing and studying animal behavior could lead to better earthquake prediction instrumentation. |
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I think my cat is predicting an earthquake cause he's always staring at walls for years. We don't get many earthquakes in Pittsburgh, so I think this is gonna be a doozy when it comes...... 
Or maybe he smells a dead body 
Nah. I keep the bodies buried in the backyard. My cat WAS right though. A few hours ago there was a magnitude 5.8 earthquake in Virginia and was felt here! According to the news and a few friends that stopped by apparently I'm the only one who didn't notice. Maybe I lived next to train tracks too long????
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I think my cat is predicting an earthquake cause he's always staring at walls for years. We don't get many earthquakes in Pittsburgh, so I think this is gonna be a doozy when it comes......
Or maybe he smells a dead body
Nah. I keep the bodies buried in the backyard. My cat WAS right though. A few hours ago there was a magnitude 5.8 earthquake in Virginia and was felt here! According to the news and a few friends that stopped by apparently I'm the only one who didn't notice. Maybe I lived next to train tracks too long????
My friend is in New Jersey and they said they felt it there |
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I think my cat is predicting an earthquake cause he's always staring at walls for years. We don't get many earthquakes in Pittsburgh, so I think this is gonna be a doozy when it comes......
Or maybe he smells a dead body
Nah. I keep the bodies buried in the backyard. My cat WAS right though. A few hours ago there was a magnitude 5.8 earthquake in Virginia and was felt here! According to the news and a few friends that stopped by apparently I'm the only one who didn't notice. Maybe I lived next to train tracks too long????
My friend is in New Jersey and they said they felt it there More interestingly, I came in to refill my drink and found him laying in the sink (which he's never done). Don't they say to get in the bathtub during earthquakes? Or is that tornadoes? Either way, maybe he really does know something. Unless, he's just hinting that he wants a hot tub????????? |
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I think my cat is predicting an earthquake cause he's always staring at walls for years. We don't get many earthquakes in Pittsburgh, so I think this is gonna be a doozy when it comes......
Or maybe he smells a dead body
Nah. I keep the bodies buried in the backyard. My cat WAS right though. A few hours ago there was a magnitude 5.8 earthquake in Virginia and was felt here! According to the news and a few friends that stopped by apparently I'm the only one who didn't notice. Maybe I lived next to train tracks too long????
My friend is in New Jersey and they said they felt it there More interestingly, I came in to refill my drink and found him laying in the sink (which he's never done). Don't they say to get in the bathtub during earthquakes? Or is that tornadoes? Either way, maybe he really does know something. Unless, he's just hinting that he wants a hot tub????????? It's probably the hot tub |
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I think my cat is predicting an earthquake cause he's always staring at walls for years. We don't get many earthquakes in Pittsburgh, so I think this is gonna be a doozy when it comes......
Or maybe he smells a dead body
Nah. I keep the bodies buried in the backyard. My cat WAS right though. A few hours ago there was a magnitude 5.8 earthquake in Virginia and was felt here! According to the news and a few friends that stopped by apparently I'm the only one who didn't notice. Maybe I lived next to train tracks too long????
My friend is in New Jersey and they said they felt it there More interestingly, I came in to refill my drink and found him laying in the sink (which he's never done). Don't they say to get in the bathtub during earthquakes? Or is that tornadoes? Either way, maybe he really does know something. Unless, he's just hinting that he wants a hot tub????????? It's probably the hot tub Well, it's good to have dreams..... Maybe he was telling me he wants a flea bath????? He's an odd critter, so anything's possible. |
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My cat was sleeping in an empty box today and jumped out and ran under the bed just before the quake hit here..They definately can sense the quakes...
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The dogs in my mobile home park went nuts today just befor the quake hit here. My cat will always hide under the bed if lightning is gonna come..an he has not been wrong yet!!
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Heard many stories today of peoples animals acting strange before the quakes.
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My cat was sleeping in an empty box today and jumped out and ran under the bed just before the quake hit here..They definately can sense the quakes... 
They were indeed fun to have a few shakes around here. 
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On the morning of April 15, 1983, Fairbanks experienced a modest magnitude 5.0 earthquake at 8:31 which would have caused but minor irritation to residents of the area, had it not been for widely reported instances of spilled coffee and toppled vases and liquor bottles. Some minor structural damage, such as cracks in sheetrock joints were reported, but evidence of major damage to buildings or facilities resulting from the earthquake has not been identified. But that is not the point of this article. What is significant is that the Geophysical Institute received a number of reports of abnormal animal behavior occurring up to half-an-hour before the earthquake occurred. Speculation among scientists concerning the subject of animal awareness of impending, potentially disastrous geophysical events has long been a subject of controversy. Almost without exception, it has been scoffed at by American scientists. But the fact is that, following Fairbanks' April 15 earthquake, many people called in to the Geophysical Institute to report that their pets or barnyard animals had been acting peculiarly. Since the establishment of the University of Alaska's seismographic network in 1967, this is the first local instance of so many reports being made of the same phenomenon, although the area has undergone many earthquakes during the time interval. Such behavior has been widely reported elsewhere in the world (particularly in the Orient) and it appears that it is time that Western scientists began to take the matter seriously. More and more, the evidence is accumulating that certain creatures--migrating birds, waterfowl, dolphins and even bees--have a built-in compass composed of a mineral called magnetite in their head which permits them to navigate, even if they don't always know where they're supposed to be going. Instincts, which humans can only dimly comprehend, take care of that. Which brings us back to the original point: Is it possible that animals can sense when an earthquake is impending in an area? A possible (and very speculative) interpretation is that when the rocks in a potential earthquake zone are stressed to almost the breaking point, the magnetic minerals in the bedrock are slightly realigned, changing the direction of the local magnetic field. Perhaps the animals sense this with their built-in compasses. Perhaps they don't. Nobody knows for sure. |
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The belief that animals can predict earthquakes has been around for centuries. For example, in 373 B.C., historians recorded that animals, including rats, snakes and weasels, deserted the Greek city of Helice in droves just days before an earthquake devastated the place. In 1975 Chinese officials ordered the evacuation of Haicheng, a city with one million people, just days before a 7.3-magnitude quake based in part on the observation of strange antics of animals (i.e. catfish moving violently, bees leaving their hive in a panic, horses stampeding, snakes emerging from their underground dens in the dead of winter, and caged birds becoming restless). As a result, only a small portion of the population was hurt or killed and… if the city had not been evacuated… it is estimated that the number of fatalities and injuries could have exceeded 150,000. Before the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, countless pet owners in the Bay Area claimed to have witnessed their dogs acting strangely before the ground shook (I.e. barking or whining for no apparent reason) while in September 2003, a medical doctor in Japan made headlines with a study that indicated erratic behavior in dogs, such as excessive barking or biting, could be used to forecast quakes. In April 2009, British researchers were studying the common toad at a breeding site in central Italy when they “observed a mass exodus of toads." as Jill Lawless reports for the Associated Press. Just five days later, a 6.3 earthquake hit the region, killing some 150 people and causing extensive damage to the town of L’Aquila. Rachel Grant, a researcher at Open University and lead author of one of the first studies to document animal behavior surrounding earthquakes, believes “that toads were able to detect pre-seismic cues such as the release of gases and charged particles, and then used those cues as a form of earthquake early warning system.” According to the study, “Predicting the unpredictable; evidence of pre-seismic anticipatory behavior in the common toad." the toad population at the breeding site dropped to zero three days prior to the quake. “A day after the earthquake, they all started coming back,” Grant told the AP. Because earthquakes are a sudden phenomenon, seismologists have no way of knowing exactly when or where the next one will hit. An estimated 500,000 detectable quakes occur in the world each year. Of those, 100,000 can be felt by humans, and 100 cause damage. But precisely what animals sense, if they feel anything at all, is a mystery. One simple explanation for unusual animal behavior seconds before humans feel an earthquake is clear: Very few humans notice the smaller P wave that travels fastest from the earthquake source and arrives before the larger S wave while at the same time, many animals with more keen senses are able to feel the P wave seconds before the S wave arrives. But, when it comes to a certain animal species sensing an impending earthquake days or weeks before it occurs, that remains another story and thus, American seismologists remain skeptical. In fact, the United States Geological Survey, a government agency that provides scientific information about the Earth, says a reproducible connection between a specific behavior in animals and the occurrence of a quake has never been made. Ironically, scientists at Stanford University discovered that strong low-frequency radio emissions preceded the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and… because radio waves travel 5,000 times faster than seismic waves… if a radio wave “signature” can be found, it might prove to be invaluable in devising an earthquake early warning system in the future. Alas, the next time your pet begins to exhibit unusual behavior for no apparent reason, you might want to consider whether he or she has been watching way too many episodes of “Lassie” or else… brace yourself for the big one. |
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Amazing animals with the ability to predict weather. Frogs These loud amphibians are said to croak even longer and louder than usual when bad weather is on the horizon. So as soon as you hear their volume increase, you can assume a storm is brewing. Birds Depending on how low our feathered friends are flying, we can gauge how bad the weather is going to be. It’s been said that if they're flying high, weather is clear. But if they’re flying closer to the ground, the air pressure of a storm system is causing them pain at higher altitudes. Cows Even farmers claim their animals can forecast the weather. According to legend, when cows sense bad weather, you’ll find them restless, antsy and swatting flies with their tails, or lying down in the pasture to save a dry spot. Bees and Butterflies When bees and butterflies have disappeared from the flower beds, you can expect some heavy weather coming your way. The folklore goes that if they’re not in their usual spots, something is up. Sheep “When sheep gather in a huddle, tomorrow will have a puddle.” Although this rhyme is cute, the weather that comes with it isn't. It's believed you can expect a storm if these animals crowd together and shield each other. Ladybugs One of the cutest insects around can also give us a hint as to the day's thermostat: “When they swarm, expect a day that’s warm.” On the other hand, if you notice the black and red bugs looking for shelter, then cold weather is on its way. Ants In preparation for bad weather, red and black ants have been known to build up their mounds for extra protection and even to cover the mounds’ holes. So if you notice higher mounds in your yard than usual, it's probably best to close the windows. Groundhogs In America, the most popular legend of an animal that can predict the weather is the groundhog, and the most famous groundhog is Phil from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. If Phil sees his shadow, it means there will be six more weeks of winter, but if not, we can look forward to an early spring. |
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While it's hard for us to know for sure how they knew danger was coming and what to do and where to go, the fact remains somehow, one way or another, they knew before it occurred.
Dolphins come into sheltered bays to avoid storms. Spiders leave their webs when it rains. Bees won't leave their hives. Seagulls come inland and human beings claim to have pain in their joints, or stuffed up noses before it rains. All over the globe animals have behaviors they exhibit before the weather changes for the worst. History is full of weather lores. I will leave you with a few pertaining to animals: If a cat washes her face o'er her ear, 'tis a sign the weather will be fine and clear. Rainbow in the morning, shepherds take warning. Rainbow at night, shepherds delight. I know ladies by the score, whose hair foretells a storm; Long before it pours, Their curls take a drooping form. Mares tails and mackerel scales, Make lofty ships carry low sails. When the wind is in the north, the skillful fisher goes not forth. When the wind is in the east, 'tis good for neither men nor beast. When the wind is in the south, it blows the flies in the fish's mouth. But when the wind is in the west, there it is the very best. Fish bite least, with wind in the east. When the ditch and pond affect the nose, Look out for rain and stormy blows. A coming storm your shooting corn presage, and aches will throb, your hollow tooth will rage. If your corns all ache and itch, The weather will make a switch. If birds fly low, Expect rain and a blow. If the rooster crows on going to bed, You may rise with a watery head. Trout jump high, When rain is nigh. Cats and dogs eat grass before a rain. A swarm of bees in May, is worth a load of hay. When sheep gather in a huddle, Tomorrow will have a puddle. Expect the weather to be fair, When crows fly in pairs. If woolly worms are dark, the coming weather will be severe. When ladybugs swarm Expect a day that's warm. When chickens scratch together, There's sure to be foul weather. When pigs carry sticks, The clouds will play tricks. When they lye in the mud, No fears of a flood. If the sparrow makes a lot of noise, rain will follow. What always amazes me, is how much we can count on many of these peculiar behaviors. So the next time you notice animals acting a bit strange, pay close attention, they may be trying to give you a warning. |
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Dogs can predict epileptic seizures Some dogs can predict when a child will have an epileptic seizure, a new study has revealed. These dogs not only protect their charges from injuries, such as falling, but also seem to help kids deal with the daily struggle of epilepsy. Nine of the 60 dogs in the study (15 per cent) were able to predict a seizure by licking, whimpering, or standing next to the child. These dogs were remarkably accurate - they predicted 80 per cent of seizures, with no false reports. However, those interested in owning a dog with these skills cannot yet just order one. The dogs were not trained, but instead began predicting seizures spontaneously within a month of moving in with their owners. "No one is reliably training such dogs yet," says Adam Kirton, a neurologist at Alberta Children's Hospital in Canada and lead author of the study. His group is looking into setting up a training program. However, some epilepsy patients do have already dogs that have been trained to protect them during a seizure. Children with epilepsy are at risk of falling or choking during a seizure. The injury rate is highly variable, but can be about 20 per cent for some types of childhood epilepsy. "But the worst part of the disease isn't a seizure, it's fear of the next seizure," says Kirton. "By knowing when a seizure might happen, it could liberate them and free them to do what they want to do." Minutes to hours Before the new study, reports of dogs predicting seizures had only been anecdotal. So Kirton and colleagues attempted to systematically assess dog behaviour by sending questionnaires to families in their clinic. Forty-two percent of the families with both an epileptic child and a dog said their dogs responded to seizures. And nine of these dogs actually anticipated the seizure, alerting families minutes to hours before the seizure occurred. Also, dog-owning families reported a higher quality of life than those without, with the owners of seizure-alerting dogs reporting the highest values. One possible weakness of the study is that the behaviour was reported by the dog-owners themselves, who may overestimated their dog's abilities. Kirton therefore plans to do another study in a more clinical setting, which will also try to determine how these dogs predict seizures. At present, the mechanism is unknown. But some researchers speculate that the dog could be using subtle visual or olfactory cues that occur before a seizure. Gregory Holmes, a neurologist at Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire, says the dogs could be detecting a change in smell. "People have autonomic changes, such as increased sweating, which a dog could pick up on." According to Douglas Nordli, director of the children's epilepsy center at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, such external changes could result from a small electrical discharge that occurs in the brain before the full blown electrical seizure. |
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Edited by
tazzops
on
Mon 08/29/11 06:45 AM
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Animals not only predicts disasters, but save lives. Many stories of animals that save the day.
Saved by the Lab While walking Boomer, my five-year-old Lab, on a street near my home, I stumbled into a pothole and broke both my legs. Though I screamed for help, no one was around. Boomer lay right down on the road and stayed there. I knew I needed medical help, so I wrapped my arms around his neck and said, “Home.” My 160-pound Lab dragged me, stopping now and then. Finally we made it to the house. My husband found me and called 911. I had rescued Boomer from a shelter. I never dreamed he would end up rescuing me. Sniff and Scratch Maggie May Longfellow, our miniature dachshund, sleeps in the top bunk with our 12-year-old daughter, Katrina. Our 16-year-old daughter, Kelli, who has Down syndrome, sleeps in the bottom. This works well for our family of seven, since our dog never disturbs anyone at night. But on February 2, 2005, at 2:30 a.m., my husband, James, and I were awakened by Maggie barking near our bed. What the heck? Then I smelled gas. In the kitchen I found a burner left on, spewing out natural gas. Gagging, I threw open the windows, remembering not to turn on lights. That could trigger an explosion. Kelli, it turns out, had lifted Maggie May out of the bed. Our dog then pawed and scratched until she opened our door. Thanks to her, there was no headline in the paper: House Explodes, Killing Family of 7 Sealed! Gimpy the elephant seal pup, my constant companion at work, was a gentle giant at 150+ pounds — until the day I slipped and belly-flopped to the deck at the Marine Mammal Care Center at Fort MacArthur, where I was a volunteer. Dazed, I looked up and saw three aggressive seal pups moving in. I reached for my protective board. Then I saw another large mass of seal blubber rushing toward me. It was Gimpy. She became my shield. As the yelping pups got closer, she swiftly forced them away. She saved me from a mauling that day — there’s no doubt about it. Stomp! In the back pasture of the refuge I operate, Lurch, my 11-month-old African Watusi calf, turned sideways and blocked my path. I couldn’t understand it. Was he being stubborn? I grasped his horns and pushed by him. As I was about to take a step, he tossed his head, throwing me off balance. A copperhead snake lay coiled right where my foot would have landed. As my dogs rushed over to check it out, the snake attacked and bit one of them. Lurch stomped on the snake until it was dead. Copperhead venom isn’t usually fatal to adults, but with me it could have been. I’m very sensitive to insect bites and had just been hospitalized for a lung condition. Lurch was only doing what he thought best. Today he’s a full-grown steer, and just as full of himself! |
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Well I believe it is just like with their hearing. They can hear pitches that the normal human ear can not. So I am sure there is a lot ruckus going on under the earth that we can not hear. As for them acting that way towards you...I believe it was because you were not in your safe zone. You had to get outside to get to it. Whether it was your house or their house. The animals once they saw you knew you were safe. I agree with this. I think they 'predict' much the same way I can predict the garbage truck is coming. I think there are PHYSICAL warnings, like disruption in the earth or the air, that animals can hear and feel and even smell although we cant. |
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Seizure response dogs are a special type of service dog, specifically trained to help someone who has epilepsy or a seizure disorder.
Due to the differing needs between each case, every potential seizure dog receives specialized training.[citation needed] Tasks for seizure dogs may include, but are not limited to: Summoning help, either by finding another person or activating a medical alert or pre-programmed phone Pulling potentially dangerous objects away from the person's body "Blocking" to keep individuals with absence seizures and complex partial seizures from walking into obstacles, streets, and other dangerous areas that can result in bodily injury or death Attempting to arouse the unconscious handler during or after a seizure Providing physical support (and the secondary benefit of emotional support, although this is not legally considered a task.) Carrying information regarding the dog, the handler's medical condition, instructions for first responders emergency medication and oxygen Additionally, some dogs may develop the ability to sense an impending seizure. This behavior is usually reported to have arisen spontaneously and developed over a period of time. There have been some studies where dogs were trained to alert impending seizures by using reward-based conditioning – with partial success. Some untrained dogs may help their owners, although there are also reports of dogs that have reacted aggressively or even died as a result of witnessing or anticipating their owner's seizure.[4] Dogs that are and may become seizure response dogs must be absolutely perfect for the job, and must be capable of maintaining control in every possible situation. Because of the rarity of these certain traits and the difficulty in training seizure response dogs, only a few organizations provide them, though the number is rising. |
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