Neuroscience
Possibly, argues Matt Kaplan in the Feb. 17 issue of New Scientist magazine.
"The idea that animals can predict earthquakes has ancient origins. Way back in 373 BC the Greek historian Thucydides recorded descriptions of rats, dogs, snakes and weasels deserting the city of Helice in droves just days before an earthquake of catastrophic proportions hit. It was the first in a long line of such anecdotes. There is also no shortage of theories about what might be going on. What has been lacking, however, is any real scientific data linking strange animal behaviour with earthquakes."
He reports that an unsuccessful study by Stanley Coren, psychologist at the University of British Columbia of dogs & depression yielded instead some intriguing insight into how / if animals -- dogs -- can predict earthquakes.
Instead of noticing any difference in their affect due to the season, Coren did notice that almost half of the dogs were agitated and extra-active the day before an earthquake about 200 miles away. The increase in both activity and anxiety were well above chance and may have been due to the impending earthquake. Coren speculated that the dogs may have heard vibrations: this was supported by the fact that the hearing-impaired dogs didn't show signs of agitation, while dogs with small heads had higher levels of agitation than the average (dogs with small heads apparently are more sensitive to high frequency sounds than others).
Kaplan concludes the Coren analysis: "Taken together, Coren's results present an alluring hypothesis. He suggests that the kind of high-frequency sounds that many dogs can hear are emitted before an impending earthquake, perhaps from rocks scraping or breaking underground."
So. Not resounding evidence, but definitely intriguing.
"Beastly powers; Surely it is too much to believe that animals can predict earthquakes when we haven't cracked it ourselves?" Matt Kaplan, New Scientist, February 17, 2007, pg. 34-37. Full-text not free online at the New Scientist web site, but you can get it from LexisNexis or Academic Search Premier (after a 1-month embargo)
- Reasons To Own A Dog
No wonder they’re man’s best friend. Deborah Wells of the Canine Behaviour Centre at Queen’s University Belfast has surveyed the literature and found widespread evidence for the benefits that dogs can bring to our physical and psychological well-being....
- Trained Olfactory Signalling In Rats
A curious report from New Scientist: Rats' brain waves could find trapped people 19:00 22 September 04 Rats equipped with radios that transmit their brainwaves could soon be helping to locate earthquake survivors buried in the wreckage of...
- Brain Symmetry In Dogs
There's been lots of research indicating that the left and right sides of human brains serve different functions. Turns out that birds, fish, and dog brains also have similar brain asymmetry, especially in the emotional area. Sandra Blakeslee reports...
- Interspecies Communication?!
Boomer has adopted a new vocalization to tell me he wants to be picked up, placed on the bathroom counter, and have the water turned on for him. This has prompted me to search for cat vocalization articles for my e-friend Eliot. Found something different,...
- More New Books!
Applied linguistics as social science; by Alison Sealey and Bob Carter. publisher: Continuum, 2004. for more info. Bilingual children's language and literacy development; by edited by R. Barnard and T. Glynn. publisher: Multilingual Matters, 2003....
Neuroscience
Do Animals Predict Earthquakes?
Possibly, argues Matt Kaplan in the Feb. 17 issue of New Scientist magazine.
"The idea that animals can predict earthquakes has ancient origins. Way back in 373 BC the Greek historian Thucydides recorded descriptions of rats, dogs, snakes and weasels deserting the city of Helice in droves just days before an earthquake of catastrophic proportions hit. It was the first in a long line of such anecdotes. There is also no shortage of theories about what might be going on. What has been lacking, however, is any real scientific data linking strange animal behaviour with earthquakes."
He reports that an unsuccessful study by Stanley Coren, psychologist at the University of British Columbia of dogs & depression yielded instead some intriguing insight into how / if animals -- dogs -- can predict earthquakes.
Instead of noticing any difference in their affect due to the season, Coren did notice that almost half of the dogs were agitated and extra-active the day before an earthquake about 200 miles away. The increase in both activity and anxiety were well above chance and may have been due to the impending earthquake. Coren speculated that the dogs may have heard vibrations: this was supported by the fact that the hearing-impaired dogs didn't show signs of agitation, while dogs with small heads had higher levels of agitation than the average (dogs with small heads apparently are more sensitive to high frequency sounds than others).
Kaplan concludes the Coren analysis: "Taken together, Coren's results present an alluring hypothesis. He suggests that the kind of high-frequency sounds that many dogs can hear are emitted before an impending earthquake, perhaps from rocks scraping or breaking underground."
So. Not resounding evidence, but definitely intriguing.
"Beastly powers; Surely it is too much to believe that animals can predict earthquakes when we haven't cracked it ourselves?" Matt Kaplan, New Scientist, February 17, 2007, pg. 34-37. Full-text not free online at the New Scientist web site, but you can get it from LexisNexis or Academic Search Premier (after a 1-month embargo)
- Reasons To Own A Dog
No wonder they’re man’s best friend. Deborah Wells of the Canine Behaviour Centre at Queen’s University Belfast has surveyed the literature and found widespread evidence for the benefits that dogs can bring to our physical and psychological well-being....
- Trained Olfactory Signalling In Rats
A curious report from New Scientist: Rats' brain waves could find trapped people 19:00 22 September 04 Rats equipped with radios that transmit their brainwaves could soon be helping to locate earthquake survivors buried in the wreckage of...
- Brain Symmetry In Dogs
There's been lots of research indicating that the left and right sides of human brains serve different functions. Turns out that birds, fish, and dog brains also have similar brain asymmetry, especially in the emotional area. Sandra Blakeslee reports...
- Interspecies Communication?!
Boomer has adopted a new vocalization to tell me he wants to be picked up, placed on the bathroom counter, and have the water turned on for him. This has prompted me to search for cat vocalization articles for my e-friend Eliot. Found something different,...
- More New Books!
Applied linguistics as social science; by Alison Sealey and Bob Carter. publisher: Continuum, 2004. for more info. Bilingual children's language and literacy development; by edited by R. Barnard and T. Glynn. publisher: Multilingual Matters, 2003....