Animals have the capability of predicting an earthquake up to a week before a natural disaster. In 373 B.C., history records that animals, including rats, snakes and weasels, deserted Helice days before an earthquake devastated the Greek city. A Japanese medical doctor claims that public health records showed an increase in excessive dog barking prior to the 1995 Kobe, Japan earthquake. When Hurricane Charley came within hours of the Caloosahatchee River, eight sharks tagged by biologists suddenly bolted out of the estuary to the safety of the open ocean. Twelve hours before the hurricane struck southwestern Florida, scientists at Mote Marine Labratory observed an odd behaviour among the sharks they'd tagged at Pine Island Sound. Eight of the 10 sharks headed swiftly out to sea.
Species of birds, dogs, elephants, tigers and other animals can detect "infrasound" -- frequencies in the range of 1-3 hertz, compared with humans' 100-200-hertz range, says psychobiologist James Walker, director of the Sensory Research Institute at Florida State University. Animal behavioralist, and author of "The Naked Ape," Desmond Morris says cats and dogs are sensitive to sudden electromagnetic changes -- like those that precede an earthquake." "Canines' sense of smell is 10,000 to 100,000 times superior to that of humans," says James Walker. So acute is this sense, that city zoo keepers in Anshan China, send a report to the seismological bureau whenever they find their animals behaving or reacting strangely.
The ancient Romans saw owls as omens of impending disaster. Strange behaviour could be observed among the bird and animal kingdoms prior to the massive tsunami triggered by a point 9 earthquake off the coast of northern Sumatra on December 26, 2004. At Sri Lanka's Yala National Park, the phenomenon was especially noticeable. Though the human death toll nearby was more than 200, officials found no wildlife carcasses. Wildlife experts believe that animals possess a more acute sense of hearing than human beings. Joyce Poole, director of the Savanna Elephant Vocalization Project stated: I have worked with elephants during two small (earthquake) tremors, and on both occasions the elephants ran in alarm several seconds before I felt the tremor.
For several days prior to the recent tsunami in Asia, animals, both wild and domestic, appeared to know something unusual was coming, and fled to safety. Patanangala Beach, one of the hardest areas hit, is a 500 square mile wildlife preserve, and home to a variety of animals such as elephants, leopards and 130 species of birds. Elephants on Patanangala Beach were observed running to higher ground an hour before the tsunami hit. Dogs refused to go outdoors. Wildlife biologists have long marveled at how waterfowl can sense an impending winter storm and often migrate ahead of it. Flamingoes abandoned their low flying breeding area at Point Calimere wildlife sanctuary, flying to higher ground before the tsunami struck. Animals housed in zoo shelters rushed to safety where they could not be coaxed to come out. Along India's Cuddalore coastline, where thousands of people perished, buffaloes, goats and dogs were found unharmed.
Thailand is home to some 2,000 domesticated elephants, descendants of a national herd of an estimated 100,000 a century ago. The elephants who were originally used for logging purposes, but in 1989, Thailand banned most of it's logging operations as forests quickly disappeared, and elephants and their mahouts were put out of work. Since the tsunami earning a living, giving rides to tourists has dwindled, and the mahouts sell charms in the streets.
HUMAN PREMONITIONS CONCERNING FLOODS WATERS
A woman named Stella gave the following testimony concerning the tsunami: Before this disaster, I dreamed about huge waves on the ocean and many, many people running, everybody was terrify. I was terrify trying to scape and screaming: RUN!, RUN!, RUN!, everybody was scaping from the ocean. I had three different dreams on last December, before this disaster, all of them were related tho the ocean, huge waves and many people running. I was very sad when I read the news about the tsunami and remembered my dreams, all this days I have been thinking of if I could warn someone. This is not the first time I dream about disasters and then I see it later on the news
A premonition about floods caused an Israeli couple living in an international community in southern India to build their house on stilts -- a move which spared them from the fury of the tsunami that later tore through the area this week.
Yuval Skoles and his wife, Hannah, moved from Israel 20 years ago to live in a beach community near Auroville, near the former French colony of Pondicherry on India's eastern coast.
When he began building his beachside compound called Eternity, his wife had dreams about floods, so he built the main house on stilts, 5 meters (16 feet) above the ground. Building in a part of India where ocean surges and tsunamis were unheard of before Dec. 26, this was, frankly, a bit odd. "It's the only house of its kind on the coast," Yuval said.
When the tsunami struck the couple were in the main house. Their daughter, her husband and son were staying in a guest house -- at ground level. The tsunami swamped the guest house. Yuval's wife urged him to jump into the raging torrents to rescue their daughter and grandson; she even threatened to jump in herself. But they were nowhere to be seen.
"For 45 minutes I thought I had lost my daughter," Yuval Skoles said. But his daughter and her family had sought refuge. They later walked back to the main A-frame house on whitewashed concrete stilts. They lost most of their possessions, and they have a lot of rebuilding to do. But Yuval Skoles said he was happy. After fearing his family had died and then learning they had lived, he said nothing can get him down. "Everything is great," he said.
ELEPHANTS RECEIVED STORM WARNING-SAVE CHILDREN IN TSUNAMI
The following story of the sensitivity and courage of several elephants prior to and during the recent tsunami, is noteworthy. HSIAsia News carried the following story from Khao Lak, Thailand on January 3, 2005:
Among the stories of animal behaviour, none is more startling than that of elephants in Thailand, where their aggitation was notable as they sensed the tsunami coming. A group of several elephants saved some foreign tourists from the fate of thousands caught and killed by the giant waves.
"I was surprised because the elephants had never cried before," mahout Dang Salangam said on Sunday on Khao Lak beach at the eight-elephant business offering rides to tourists.
The elephants started trumpeting -- in a way Dang, 36, and his wife Kulada, 24, said could only be described as crying -- at first light, about the time an earthquake measured at a magnitude of 9.0 cracked open the sea bed off Indonesia's Sumatra island.
The elephants soon calmed down. But they started wailing again about an hour later and this time they could not be comforted despite their mahouts' attempts at reassurance.
"The elephants didn't believe the mahouts. They just kept running for the hill," said Wit Aniwat, 24, who takes the money from tourists and helps them on to the back of elephants from a sturdy wooden platform.
Those with tourists aboard headed for the jungle-clad hill behind the resort beach where at least 3,800 people, more than half of them foreigners, would soon be killed. The elephants that were not working broke their hefty chains.
"Then we saw the big wave coming and we started running," Wit said.
Around a dozen tourists were also running toward the hill from the Khao Lak Merlin Resort, one of a line of hotels strung along the 10 km (6-mile) beach especially popular with Scandinavians and Germans.
"The mahouts managed to turn the elephants to lift the tourists onto their backs," Kulada said.
She used her hands to describe how the huge beasts used their trunks to pluck the foreigners from the ground and deposit them on their backs.
The elephants charged up the hill through the jungle, then stopped.
The tsunami drove up to 1 km (1,000 yards) inshore from the gently sloping beach which had been so safe for children it made Khao Lak an ideal place for a family holiday. But it stopped short of where the elephants stood.
On Sunday, the elephants were back at work giving rides to the tourists on whom the area depends.
German Ewald Heeg, who said he came from a small town near Frankfurt, said his charter company had offered his family -- wife, two daughters and one of their boyfriends -- the chance to go straight home, but he had turned it down.
"Our family is OK so we stay here to make our holiday," he said. "Today, we make a safari. We go by elephants at first, then we make a boat trip."
TALE FROM JIM FRANCE-BANGKOK
From the unbelievable chaos of the Tsunami disaster comes an incredible tale from Jim France of the Pavilion Hotel Group in Bangkok. At a resort on Phuket, one of the most popular attractions is (was) elephant rides. As many as 8 people on one elephant, first into the surrounding forest, then down to the beach, to lunch at a fresh water lagoon, then back to the hotel.
The elephants (9) were kept chained to in-ground posts, not because they needed to be, but because it made the mothers feel better because their children seemed safe from a tromping when feeding the beasts. About twenty minutes before the first wave hit, the elephants became extremely agitated and unruly. Four had just returned from a trip and their handler's had not yet chained them.
They helped the other five tear free from their chains. They all then climbed a hill and started bellowing. Many people followed them up the hill. Then the waves hit. After the waves subsided, the elephants charged down from the hill, and started picking up children with their trunks and running them back up the hill; when all the children were taken care of, they started helping the adults. They rescued 42 people. Then, they returned to the beach and carried up 4 dead bodies, one of a child. Not until the task was done would they allow their handler's to mount them. Then with handler's atop, they began moving wreckage.
Truly amazing story! A British tourist says she saw an elephant save several children on a Thai beach when the killer waves struck. The animal had been brought to a beach resort in Phuket to entertain children. Laura Barnett says the elephant's keeper hoisted kids up onto the animal's back, and then walked them off to safety. Ms Barnett told her tale from London. She and her family escaped the disaster, but the beach where she was staying was destroyed.
Does this tale of the animals behaving in such a remarkable way, mean that we should worship elephants or the idol some call the elephant god? No! We give praise, honour and glory alone to the God of gods, who created the earth, seas, the animals, and mankind, in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
"For IN (en) him ALL things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; ALL things were created THROUGH (di’) him and FOR (eis) him. He is before all things, AND IN (en) HIM ALL THINGS HOLD TOGETHER. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy." (Colossians 1:16-18)
