The
belief that animals can predict earthquakes has been around for centuries. In
2008, a severe earthquake happened in Wenchuan, China. Several weeks before this
earthquake, the toads in Wenchuan began a large scale migrate, people found
hundreds of toads appeared on the street. Someone wondered if it is a
phenomenon that predicted a big disaster. After the earthquake happened, more
and more people believed in that the strange behavior of animals do indicate
the nature disaster. In other words, animals can predict earthquakes for some
unknown reason. 
Can
this belief be used in to the predict of earthquake or the other nature disaster? People's opinions are
divided on this topic. Even in ancient times, historians recorded that animals,
including rats, snakes and weasels, deserted the Greek city of Helice in droves
just days before a quake devastated the place. During the recent years, the
erratic behavior of animals before the earthquake such as catfish moving violently,
chickens that stop laying eggs and bees leaving their hive in a panic have been
reported. Also, countless pet owners claimed to have witnessed their cats and
dogs acting strangely before the ground shook--barking or whining for no
apparent reason, or showing signs of nervousness and restlessness. The
supporters of that animals can predict earthquake raise the assumption that,
wild and domestic creatures feel the Earth vibrate before humans, and another
idea suggest they can detect electrical changes in the air or gas released from
the Earth. So, it seems that we can apply our discover into the prediction of
disasters.
However,
as Andy Michael, a geophysicist at USGS said that animals react to so many
things--being hungry, defending their territories, mating, predators--so it's
hard to have a controlled study to get that advanced warning signal. Several
studies have been done on this issue, but the results of them were not strong
enough to prove the credibility of the animal's predict. The opponents claim that
feeling a trembling earth, even if minutes before we would feel it, would not
give much guidance to a running or flying animal other than a response to seek
safety, moreover, we are not sure if the animal can really predict. Even though there have been documented cases
of unusual animal behavior prior to earthquakes, a reproducible connection
between a specific behavior and the occurrence of an earthquake has not been
made. Remember we talk in our class, that the correlation is not equal to
causation. It the same that, we can easily find that the unusual behavior of
animals has something to do with the earthquake. But we cannot make the
conclusion that the earthquake cause the unusual behavior of animals.
In my
personal view, it is better for us to take the strange behavior of the animal
as a signal, in order to avoid the larger hurt.
Source from:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/11/1111_031111-earthquakeanimals.html
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/kids/eqscience.php
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/can-animals-predict-disaster/tall-tales-or-true/131/
http://biology.about.com/od/animalbehavior/a/aa123104a.htm
I agree with your opinion. I think that we should further study animals reactions to natural disasters. This could be done by having animals treated normally in laboratories, and study there behavior for up to a year on end. I would say that there are a few natural disasters a year that animals would supposedly be able to detect
I also believe this because animals seem to have more natural instinct than humans do. They are able to detect storms and bad weather far before humans can. So, it definitely make sense that they would be able to detect natural disasters such as earthquakes.
I think this can be a very valuable thing to study because it can save many lives. I believe that in order to understand why animals can seem to detect earthquakes more research must be done on earthquakes. I believe there is some sort of precursor to the earthquake that animals can predict, but our human sense are not sensitive enough to pick up on. This could be some sort of electrical pulse that is only detectable by animals or some sort of slight shift.
It's always been known that animals of all species have heighten senses when compared to humans. Birds and turtles migrate over large distances. They are genetically programmed to respond to the changing days as well as weather. Sea turtles use the Earth's magnetic field to navigate the ocean. Elephants, along with their large ears, can produce infrasonic sounds that can travel over long distances and be heard by other elephants.
Here's where I got all that:
Yale- Heightened senses in animals