There are many stories that various animals behaved strangely before global natural disasters, primarily before earthquakes. It is believed that they can predict cataclysms. We decided to check if this is really so.

One of the earliest references to such animal behavior refers To the times of ancient Greece. “A few days before the earthquake that destroyed the city of Helikos in Greece, moles, affection, malicious and centipedes came out of the holes and turned into a random flight,” wrote an unknown observer in 328 BC. e. There are more fresh evidence: in 1835, almost all dogs before the destructive earthquake in Chile left The epicenter of the approaching disaster, in 1976 in Italy and in 1979 in the United States on the eve of the cataclysm, cats rushed through the rooms, scratched doors and windows and windows and They carried it out their kittens outside, in 2008 thousands of toads Filled The streets of the village three days before the settlement was almost completely destroyed by underground shocks. In 2008, in Israel there was even registered A patent on the earthquake prediction system based on animal behavior. True, he was not implemented due to the high cost of creating the relevant weather stations. But in China acts A whole network of such biopoligions.

Many folk signs are associated with the behavior of animals and the subsequent change in the weather: sparrows "Swim" in the sand, and frogs are more active croak - To rain, birds Fly low - to bad weather, cats Sleep On the back, spreading the paws to the sides - to warm and clear weather. During the lack of meteorological observation, this method was the only option for predicting the weather. Despite all the achievements of science, the forecasting of earthquakes today is still far from perfection. Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences Evgeny Aleksandrovich Rogozhin reportsthat “if there is a network of seismic stations, this is enough to make a seismological forecast. It is quite stable in the long term, that is, if you predict the earthquakes, we will put it for the next five years. Medium -term forecasts (say, for the next year) is a little worse - higher uncertainty. If you want to create a short -term forecast - for the next day or a week - then the seismological method is almost useless. ”

It was with the incorrect short -term forecast that the indictment was connected sentence Six scientists and seismologists and one official in the Italian city of Akvil. They were sentenced to six years in prison for not considering the situation dangerous, and the earthquake that had happened entailed the death of almost 300 people. Incorrect data interpretation I became The cause of mass human casualties in 2011. Then the Japanese seismologists predicted, relying on scientific data, an earthquake on the island of Hongsu. The incident on March 9, the Earthquake of magnitude 7.6 was regarded by them as the main one and the precautions and informing of the population were canceled. However, it turned out that these tremors were, speaking by the scientific language, only forces - a preliminary earthquake, and more destructive, magnitude 9, happened two days later. Then Died More than 15,000 people and more than 2000 are missing. At the same time, 80 seconds before the main cataclysm I worked The warning system, which nevertheless saved many lives.

At the same time, animals, judging by the data eyewitnesses, begin to change their behavior for a longer one -standing period of time from the disaster - from several hours to a couple of days. By data National Geographic, Males of ordinary toads possess high seismic sensitivity. Before the earthquake in Aquille, they began to leave the pond located more than 70 km from the epicenter: “Five days before the cataclysm, 96% of males left the pond, and in three days all the toads.” Mice can feel a catastrophe in 10-15 days, fish - for 1–10 depending on their location, home chickens - in 1-3 days, dogs, parrots and canaries - in a couple of hours. Seismological sensitivity Noticed Also behind cats, pigs, horses, cows and sheep.

Data is confirmed experimentally. Scientists of the Institute for the Study of Animals of the Society of Max Planck chose six cows, five sheep, one rabbit, four chicken, two turkeys and two dogs on farms in a seismologically active zone in Italy. Animals were equipped with a speed and location monitoring sensor. Their behavior really changed 20 and less hours before underground shocks. Moreover, they began to worry and move as far as possible from the epicenter as possible even before very weak earthquakes, only 0.4 magnitude, which for humans Absolutely invisible.

Козы, Рога, Борода, Животные, Ферма, Домашний Скот

Scientists from NASA and British Open University Studied The phenomenon of the mass outcome of toads from reservoirs near Aquila. They found out that when the earth is subjected to a large pressure of tectonic forces, special charged particles - ions are distinguished. Positively charged ions cause serotonin syndrome, which manifests itself in people with headache, nausea and anxiety. They have a similar effect on animals, They say The authors of the study. This and other chemical reactions can become a signaling mechanism warning animals about danger. At the same time, scientists themselves say that further studies are needed that clarifying the mechanisms of seismological alert of animals so that they can be fully used to predict disasters.

In 1983-1985, American scientists Searched The pattern between the increase in the number of newspaper ads in San Jose Mercury News about the missing or found pets in the San Francisco area. It was assumed that, anticipating disasters, cats and dogs should run away from home more often than usual. However, scientists did not reveal such a connection. True, they clarified that the study of newspaper ads is a lack of data source, given that not all pets owners will give a paid announcement that the animal could retire to give birth, be stolen, shot down in an accident, as well as the fact that after the earthquakes the owners can have more relevant tasks than the search for a pet, who died in ruins. It was also not possible to find news stories that animals behaved as usual before the disaster. Perhaps this is explained A systematic mistake of the surviving And the fact that after the earthquake, the news primarily reports the dead and injured people, and not about pets.

Michael Blanpid, assistant coordinator of the American program of the geological service for threats of earthquakes Tuned less optimistic. He says that seismologists, of course, would like to have an affordable system for predicting earthquakes, but it seems that the behavior of animals will not fall into its basis.

Thus, there are many documented cases when animals changed their behavior before the earthquake and even thus saved people. At the same time, scientists have not yet come to a consensus regarding a certain mechanism, which could be explained by such a change in behavior. At the same time, further research will someday be able to fill in the gaps in our knowledge, and pets will become reliable sensors of impending disasters.