Susan Hough, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) who was not involved in the study, said she really likes the approach the researchers took. Farm animals may be able to sense earthquakes hours before they actually occur, according to new research that followed the movements of cows, chickens, and dogs during temblors in northern Italy. The researchers tagged a number of animals — cows, sheep, dogs, chickens, turkeys and rabbit — in a farmland with sensors that measured the animal’s movement in three-dimensional space, like a Fitbit. A nearby farm in the earthquake-hit area provided a perfect landscape to test this theory. Such evidence is not relegated to history books. The belief that animals can predict earthquakes has been around for centuries. Animals Sense Earthquakes Before They Happen. Examining the data was like watching the financial market for signs of impending trouble. “We’re incredibly lucky that we have [data collected] before, during, and after a major earthquake,” Wikelski said. When major earthquake struck, it gave them a rare chance to monitor animals before, during and after an earthquake. Toads left their ponds and herds of cows were reported to have rushed down a hill before the 2009 earthquake in L’Aquila, Italy. “It's not a game-changer in terms of predicting earthquakes, because it's a very narrow study in terms of its locality,” says Stephen Hicks, a seismologist at the Imperial College in London. Your email address is used to log in and will not be shared or sold. The team also found that the farther the animals were from the quake’s epicenter, the longer it took for their behaviour to change, hinting at some slow diffusive signal that the animals detect. Wikelski recognizes the shortcomings of his study. 24 October 2019, Research Spotlight Regardless, the study’s results “aren’t overwhelming” for Hough, who added that the plots showing animal activity versus seismic activity aren’t exactly intuitive. The animals anticipated eight out of nine earthquakes with magnitudes higher than 4.0 that occurred in 2017. 27 October 2020, Opinion But those that were in stables showed a different response. Rohini Balakrishnan, an ecologist at the Indian Institute of Science in India, says the fact that seismic activity follows a collective change in animal behaviour does not necessarily mean that one causes the other. In that sense, Wikelski’s study is a first-of-its-kind, in which it systematically monitored animals for a long period and then compared these animal activity timelines, gathered over months, with seismic activity. Or they might sense early but weak shocks that humans can't feel. All rights reserved. The study started shortly after the October earthquake. But on a closer look, the animals’ movements in some areas were like mayhem—particularly those that were kept in stables, from which they couldn’t escape. The nasal membrane is very sensitive to perfumes, chemicals and dust, and these agents can cause upper respiratory problems for the rabbit. “To my eye, the correlation doesn’t really jump out at me when I look at it,” she said. The family had even fed the animals wine and sugar to calm them down. “We need a lot more of those measurements before we can really say something.” He also acknowledges the skepticism his line of research receives but says “in a way, it’s good because then we have to show that there are real data and real patterns.”, Radar Is Revolutionizing the Study of Migrations, but Researchers Need Birdwatchers’ Help, Cubs, Goslings, Shark Pups and Other Odd Terms for Baby Animals. After this initial episode, the researchers returned to the farm in January 2017, to tag the same animals again for an extended period until April 2017. “The problem is, you can’t do science that way,” she said. Moreover, the unusual behavioral pattern that preceded an earthquake was only significant when all three species’ collective behavior was taken into account. “[Farmers] trust some of their animals because they know they’re very sensitive,” Wikelski said. “Even with sophisticated instruments, we have trouble detecting earthquakes,” Page noted. Equipped with a timeline of data on the behavior of cows, sheep and dogs from October 2016 and January-April 2017, the researchers compared the timeline of animal activity with a timeline of earthquakes that were occurring in the same period. The researchers tagged a number of animals — cows, sheep, dogs, chickens, turkeys and rabbit — in a farmland with sensors that measured the animal’s movement in three-dimensional space, like a Fitbit. When all animals start moving in different directions, the data appear like a “stock market crash.”“When [farm animals] are not in the stable and out in the field, they don’t really seem to care,” Wikelski said. 12 April 2019, Science Update Every animal senses its environment in a distinct manner, “but if you pool [their] sensing systems together, it gives you a novel way of sensing the environment, and in principle, this is the sixth sense of animals,” says Wikelski. There might be other variables that the researchers are not aware of. The scientists rushed to the area and asked farmers whether they could outfit their animals with accelerometers. —Joshua Rapp Learn (@JoshuaLearn1), Science Writer, News The team also found that the farther the animals were from the quake’s epicenter, the longer it took for their behavior to change, hinting at some slow diffusive signal that the animals detect. Now, after sifting through months of behavioral data of farm animals and 18,000 (mostly minor) earthquakes later, Wikelski and his colleagues see a pattern. Face masks: How can we cut down the environmental impact? “People always start from the time of the earthquake and then go back,” she said. Want it all? “It’s as good a start as we can get,” he said. The earliest reference we have to unusual animal behavior prior to a significant earthquake is from Greece in 373 BC. 25 September 2020. The farmers identified animals that were particularly sensitive to quakes, and about 20 cows, dogs, sheep, rabbits, chickens, and turkeys were fitted with devices. 24 August 2020. Wikelski and his team opted for the next best thing: aftershocks. Their results show a consistent pattern of animal behavior that occurs before each earthquake. “I do think one would need to test many more individuals.” In other words, the fact that seismic activity follows a collective change in animal behavior does not necessarily mean that one causes the other. Rats, weasels, snakes, and centipedes reportedly left their homes and headed for safety several days before a destructive earthquake. Joshua Rapp Learn Animals may sense the ionization of the air caused by the large rock pressures in earthquake zones with their fur. Equipped with a timeline of data on the behaviour of cows, sheep and dogs in 2016 and 2017, the researchers compared the timeline of animal activity with a timeline of earthquakes that were occurring in the same period. It is still unclear how animals can sense impending earthquakes. “We don’t know why,” says Wikelski. 29 October 2020, News Hough said she’d like to see more data before making conclusions, and Wikelski agreed. Morgan Page, a geophysicist with USGS, also can’t see much of a pattern from their data. Not everyone is convinced by Wikelski’s study, though. Although scientists had … The animals anticipated eight out of nine earthquakes with magnitudes higher than 4.0 that occurred between January and April 2017. Your website access code is located in the upper right corner of the Table of Contents page of your digital edition. In a case where the epicenter was nearly below the farm, the animals showed reactions 15–18 hours beforehand. Seismologists think animals sense an electrical signal generated by the movement of underground rocks before an earthquake. They tagged a number of animals — six cows, five sheep, two dogs, a couple of chickens, turkeys and a rabbit — with sensors that measured the animal’s movement in three-dimensional space, like a Fitbit. They had their chance in October 2016, when a quake occurred in central Italy with a magnitude of roughly 5. In a study published in Ethology, they report evidence of animals reacting in a consistent manner before an impending quake. Global Multi‐Resolution Topography synthesis, The Visual Complexity of Coronal Mass Ejections Follows the Solar Cycle, The First Undeniable Climate Change Deaths, Severe Cyclones May Have Played a Role in the Maya Collapse, How Scientists Can Engage to Solve the Climate Crisis, Global North Is Responsible for 92% of Excess Emissions. After the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami of 2004, Indonesian students learned to repeat songs instructing them that when animals run uphill en masse, students should drop everything and follow them because it could mean a tsunami is approaching, Wikelski said. Prior to the Haicheng earthquake of 1975, for instance, Chinese authorities ordered the evacuation of the city at least in part because of observations of strange animal behavior. No, because rabbits body are sensitive if we take rabbits as a domestic animals they can die very soon and they are adapted to a forest life not in human life. © Copyrights 2016, TELANGANA PUBLICATIONS PVT. Eos is a source for news and perspectives about Earth and space science, including coverage of new research, analyses of science policy, and scientist-authored descriptions of their ongoing research and commentary on issues affecting the science community.
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