Did animals' 'sixth sense' save them from tsunami?

[Telos]

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) -- Wild animals seem to have escaped the Indian Ocean tsunami, adding weight to notions they possess a "sixth sense" for disasters, experts said on Thursday.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/12/30/quake.animals.reut/index.html

[catmeow]

I heard this too.  Our local radio station (LBC) did a feature on it and many people phoned in to say their pets would do things such as

- Become restless and behave oddly half an hour before the air raid siren went off (2nd world war)
- Same thing an hour or so before a thunderstorm
- Same thing 20 mins before a loved owner returned home from shopping

etc.  The callers insisted that their pets did this every time, and were so reliable that the owners would get their coats ready to go down to the air raid bunker, or put on wet weather clothing despite the fact that there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

It's possible animals sense some sort of bio-magnetic effect, air pressure or vibrations in the ground which we don't, but I suspect the reason isn't a physical one. Having said that. my own beloved pet cat is the least psychic sentient being I know...  

btw, Telos, what has happened to your avatar?

catmeow

[Gandalf]

An Indian scientist has conducted research over many countries, including India and the US, which strongly indicates that animals become agitated before such an event.

This has long been known in the traditions of many countries and in China animals have long been used as 'early warning systems' and for this reason the scientist is suggesting that teaching local people about animal behaviour could prove a much more effective 'early warning system' than millions of bucks worth of electronics.. these animal methods have been used for thousands of years and they should not be automatically dismissed.

It seems that animals do have a 'sixth sense' or rather, their hearing and tactile senses are far greater than ours (also four feet on the ground rather than our two!), so it is likely that they can hear/feel changes in vibrations in the ground and in the air and perhaps smell sulphur and other factors.. way before we dullards become aware that anything's wrong... since animals are hardwired to be aware of these things.. they have been around longer than us, they know right away to run like f**k...

The only  problem is that in the report the 'early warning system' was variable.. in some cases the animals became agitated several hours before...which is plenty of time for us and them to escape.. but in other cases it was a couple of minutes... which is hardly any good!!!!! (although possbily enough time for them to get away, leaving us to kiss our asses).

Doug

[Darren]

I believe 100% that pets have 6th sense! My dog always knows when my mum or a family member is on there way home! about 10 Min's before they arrive in the car my dog will run to the door and wait there getting all agitated and 'crying'. I don't know how but she can sense the presence or intension of people as other do i believe...

[catmeow]

Hi Darren,

Yes, it's interesting to see ESP in practice.  For me, the most convincing demonstrations of the reality of ESP have been simple personal experiences like the one's you described.  I have had readings by so-called psychics and I sometimes watch 'mediums' doing readings on TV.  But these never really hit the mark.  But when your pet starts wagging his tail 10 mins before a loved one returns, and he does this everytime, you know something is definitely going on!

catmeow

[pharmakeia]

Author and PhD Rupert Sheldrake wrote a book called "7 Experiments that could change the world". One of the chaptors discusses premonitions by animals that their owners are returning soon. Good book.

pharmakeia

[knucklebrain1970]

I don't know if this is relevant. I have two Siamese cats, prince and king. Every night at about 11pm they look at the same spot on the ceiling for about a 1/2 hour. Every night, no matter what. They are in a trance type state that nothing can break them from. I move them, they proceed back to the same area. I tried 20 minutes on night to stop this. I locked them in the bathroom and they went nuts, screaming for 5 minutes straight until I gave in for my sanity's sake. Anybody have any idea what's going on here? The only thing I can think of is that they're transmitting data back to the mother ship. Sometimes this scares the hell out of me too. I don't know what to make of it.  These cats however are very intelligent, sometimes too intelligent.

Kevin

[sashamasha]

my kitties are part Siamese and they do creepy stuff like this all the time.  other cat's I've owned were not nearly so... organized? and obvious about things they are doing.  I think there is definitely a Siamese thing to it.

[Share]

My kitty used to meet me on the driveway when I came home from school. It didn't matter what time it was.

So yea, I believe that animals have a sixth sense.