Did toads predict the Chinese earthquake?

**Skeptical**

An interesting story here about a mass migration of toads in the same area of China that, a couple days later, was devastated by an earthquake:

http://observers.france24.com/en/content/20080513-toads-predict-earthquake-dead-china

Seems very possible to me that "lower" animals are better in tune with the messages the earth is sending us. Humans lives are so busy and noisy, they never hear or feel the warnings that could potentially save their lives.

There is a follow-on story at the same link about a pond that disappeared. You'd think that would have been a pretty good clue that something was about to happen - the ground shifting and all the water draining into fissures in the earth. Same thing happened in recent months in Chile. A 40-acre lake completely drained into the earth. Now that would be weird! Shocked

S
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**Revan** · Joined: 15 Jun 2007 Posts: 139 Location: USA

Well, I have head that animals have the ability to tell when disaster is going to happen, days in advance. Would be pretty nice to have.
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**dr wu23** · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 2254 Location: Indiana

So.....the next time I see toads heading for the hills, I should follow them?

Wink

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**Skeptical** · Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 9:37 am Post subject:

You know, I think of the old scenes out of those Western movies where the Indian would put his ear to the ground and be able to determine whether the cavalry was nearby. Maybe it really is about listening - or knowing how to listen.

Toads spend their entire lives with their bellies on the ground. I could see that they might very well be dialed into various vibrations that don't register beyond the background noise on seismographs. I don't think that they necessarily know what the vibrations mean. They may simply know that they are unpleasant and their natural reaction is to get away from them.

You have to figure toads have been toads for a hell of a lot longer than humans have been humans. Evolution has had many millions of years to fine-tune that mechanism.
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