Zoo Animals Go Wild Ahead Of Quake

Report on a local DC news about how the animals at the National Zoo reacted to the 5.8 earthquake in Virginia on 8/23/11.

The animals always know first. Well before any humans ducked beneath a desk or sought shelter in a doorway on Tuesday, wildlife at the zoo started to react to the oncoming earthquake. In the small mammal house, the red-ruffed lemurs sounded an alarm call, fifteen minutes before the shift along the Central Virginia Seismic Zone caused Richter scales to leap at 1:51 p.m. However, the lemur's housemates, the howler monkeys, were not as keen. They only started making noise after the zoo started shaking.

Read the whole report here.

My own experience with my two cats was interesting. They were very active in the hours before the quake. My female, who is more excitable anyway, spent a good portion of the late morning and early afternoon running through the house vocalizing very loudly. My male, who is much more serene was also agitated.

About 30 minutes before the quake struck I had had enough of the theatrics and got both cats on my bed and talked quietly and petted them until they settled down some. I had finally thought that we made some progress when both cats simultaneously leaped into the air and onto me. They sat there stiff and shaking for about 45 seconds and then the quake began.

I live about 60 miles SW of the epicenter of the Virginia quake.
About 3 hours before it happened a cardinal flew right into a window on my house.
He was stunned and it took him an hour to pull it together but he flew away safely.
My cats were a bit antsy as well.
Animals have senses that humans either never had or have lost.
I'll be interested to see if others have seen strange behaviors in animals before the earthquake.

Always fascinating to see how animals are one step ahead of us on these things.

Here's a bit of a cute read on the topic from The Atlantic Wire:

In Quake, Zoo Animals React Much More Adorably Than Humans

Glad to see you and the kitties are doing okay. Stay safe.

ETA:

Birds Somewhat predictably, the zoo's flamingos were spooked. "The Zoo has a flock of 64 flamingos. Just before the quake, the birds rushed about and grouped themselves together. They remained huddled during the quake."

I always found this topic fascinating. Apparently, during the 2004 Indonesian EQ/Tsunami, an entire village was saved because they followed the animals that were all heading inland and uphill.

Rupert Sheldrake has done a nice amount of research on this. You might find him an interesting guy to look into, if you haven't already. He has a lot of neat info on the topic.

Many animals got these "nature" senses.

Like "prediction Earthquakes and volcanos, follow Earths magnetic fields, sense electricity, seek shelter before bad weather erupts, rats leaving the sewer before they get flooded and many more.

I bet we got some of these too, but either forgot how to listen or got our senses dulled with drugs in the media/food/water/atmosphere/(or other).

I been able to tell 5-10 minuts before it start to rain for a long time (but only under certain conditions in the atmosphere). When you say it will start to rain in a minut or two, people useually laugh. But you can smell it, if you know how it smells and the laughter useually end when the rain started.

I believe we may have alot of these nature receptors that were not aware of.

I'm always fascinated by the way that animals are in tune with the Earth, and are aware that something is about to happen before it actually does

I believe that we were once in tune with our great mother(the earth), but we've lost our way.

Sadly, if the hurricane comes close than predicted so far, the animals will even be more restless, not to mention the damage added to what has already happened. Surely the Zoo keepers were worried when the animals acted up, never expecting a quake! Always good to be aware of the instincts your pets share, and more so now with these odd natural happenings.

Originally posted by Hessling
Always fascinating to see how animals are one step ahead of us on these things.

Here's a bit of a cute read on the topic from The Atlantic Wire:

In Quake, Zoo Animals React Much More Adorably Than Humans

Glad to see you and the kitties are doing okay. Stay safe.

ETA:

Birds Somewhat predictably, the zoo's flamingos were spooked. "The Zoo has a flock of 64 flamingos. Just before the quake, the birds rushed about and grouped themselves together. They remained huddled during the quake."

edit on 24-8-2011 by Hessling because: ETA

That was a much better article!

Thanks for adding that. I find the whole thing fascinating.

One of my ex-girlfriends called me panicked prior to the quake also.

reply to post by dreamingawake


I can personally understand how the animals can know about a hurricane before it happens because I am also sensitive to changes in pressure and can tell when a front or somehing of that nature is going to move through.

The sensitivity to earthquakes is something I haven't experienced so I can't fathom it. I know there are theories about animals sensing electromagnetic changes in the earth. I believe that they are sensitive but would love to know what it is like for them.

Enjoyed reading the article about how the animals in the zoo reacted to the earthquake. It seems like it could cause some problems if a large animal became suddenly agitated and tried to escape. That is what horses usually do in earthquakes, at least here out in the West U.S., they will knock you over trying to get away. So I am glad that everyone and everything is alright.

Cats do sense things like earthquakes, volcanoes and floods. Maybe they can hear better than we can or there is a smell in the air that we do not notice. I do not have a link, but when Mt. St. Helens blew up, all the cats in Toutle, WA (city near volcano) went up into trees and if they were inside, they climbed to the highest place in house that they could get to.

No one could figure out why the cats would not come down, and why they were acting that way, until Mt. St. Helens blew up and released a 300 mile an hour lahar flow that rushed right by Toutle. The cats were getting out of the way of the flood that was coming, and I still think it is amazing that they knew.

Originally posted by EthanT
I always found this topic fascinating. Apparently, during the 2004 Indonesian EQ/Tsunami, an entire village was saved because they followed the animals that were all heading inland and uphill.

Rupert Sheldrake has done a nice amount of research on this. You might find him an interesting guy to look into, if you haven't already. He has a lot of neat info on the topic.

Thanks for the reference. I will have to look him up.

I forgot to mention in my OP that about an hour after the 5.8 hit both cats were almost nonchalant about the 2.8 aftershock. It was like yawn, nothing to worry about.

reply to post by EthanT


Sorry if this is OT but I love Sheldrake's work.
His book the Presence of the Past was a lifechanger for me.
I've also read the Re-greening of Nature.
Does he have other titles that are relevant to this?

Don't know if this is on topic but my Norweigian Elkhound knew two weeks before a tiny EQ hit UK. We live tens of miles away from epicentre but somehow the EQ wave hit my sister's house and made the lightshade swing. She lived miles away as well. But my dog knew and barked to get us out of the house for two weeks, and then immediately after he was back to normal.

What I couldn't get over was how could he tell for two weeks? Most of these Zoo animals were agitated about 15mins before the EQ.

My youngest can also tell when rain is coming. We think she taught herself as we were involved in a horizontal tornado that injured me, and she is on heightened alert now.

Peace

Originally posted by Asktheanimals
reply to post by EthanT

 

Sorry if this is OT but I love Sheldrake's work.
His book the Presence of the Past was a lifechanger for me.
I've also read the Re-greening of Nature.
Does he have other titles that are relevant to this?

Yes, "Dogs That Know There Owners Are Coming Home"

Check out his website, and go to "Books & Recordings"

www.sheldrake.org...

There are also a lot of great videos and interviews on him out there if you poke around:

The sceptico interview listed on the page mentioned above was pretty good. I also sorta liked this one where he puts some mainstream thinking in it's place



A little OT again though ... sry!

I've noticed there are two types of thinking about this amongst folks who do believe animals can "sense" more than we do.

(1) Animal do have extra senses BUT they will ALL eventually be explained via some standard scientific reasoning, e.g. magnetic fields are something similar.

or

(2) Animals have extra sense, and while some will have more mundane explanations like magnetic field detection, some are legitimate cases of psi, or psychic ability, that will require a completely new type of explanation.

This relates back to Rupert Sheldrake who seems to be showing with his work that case #2 is becoming the more likely one. I am thinking specifically of work he has done with dogs sensing when their owners are coming home. I tend to agree with Rupert.

I'd be curious where folks on ATS feel they fall - in #1 or #2, or somewhere else altogether?

reply to post by EthanT


To me, it seems more like a combination of both. There are many more than just the usual 5 senses that we commonly ascribe to humans. Last count was something around 20 or so.
As far as the second explanation goes, I think David Wilcock and his source field investigations are on the same track as Sheldrake was 20 years ago. There are mechanisms in the universe that transcend time and space and the reason we have not "discovered" them is because science uses both time and space as tools for measurement, without which they claim it cannot exist.
The theory of Morphogenesis explains these actions quite elegantly though far be it for me to even attempt to summarize it any way.
At times logic can act as a set of blinders keeping many secrets of the universe hidden from mankind but the animal kingdom isn't hampered by such conventions.
They can sense things that science dictates are impossible.