Animals, contrary to human beings, are much better at interpreting
what their senses tell them about changes in their surroundings - a
vital survival instinct that mankind to a large extent has lost, and
in many cases this is something that a group of recordists should
find interesting as the subsonic rumble of distant events sometimes
seem to be what triggers protective behaviour. This is a very
unscientific piece of information of course.
The animals, better in tune with the natural vibrations and sounds
of their surroundings, would notice the initial earthquake, and
likewise they might have further detected the approaching wave.
Another thing to consider is of course that the zone nearest the
ocean is generally saturated with human occupation, leaving less
room for animals, and it is in this zone that the effect has been
the greatest also on the human population.
Hakon
www.HakonSoreide.com
--- In Wild Sanctuary <>
wrote:
> Ain't this interesting, folks?
>
> Bernie
>
> *********************************************
>
> Tsunami Kills Few Animals in Sri Lanka
>
> By GEMUNU AMARASINGHE
> YALA NATIONAL PARK, Sri Lanka (AP) - Wildlife officials in Sri
Lanka
> expressed surprise Wednesday that they found no evidence of
> large-scale animal deaths from the tsunamis - indicating that
animals
> may have sensed the wave coming and fled to higher ground.
>
> An Associated Press photographer who flew over Sri Lanka's Yala
> National Park in an air force helicopter saw abundant wildlife,
> including elephants, buffalo, deer, and not a single animal corpse.
>
> Floodwaters from Sunday's tsunami swept into the park, uprooting
> trees and toppling cars onto their roofs - one red car even ended
up
> on top of a huge tree - but the animals apparently were not harmed
> and may have sought out high ground, said Gehan de Silva
Wijeyeratne,
> whose Jetwing Eco Holidays ran a hotel in the park.
>
> ``This is very interesting. I am finding bodies of humans, but I
have
> yet to see a dead animal,'' said Wijeyeratne, whose hotel in the
park
> was destroyed.
>
> ``Maybe what we think is true, that animals have a sixth sense,''
> Wijeyeratne said.
>
> Yala, Sri Lanka's largest wildlife reserve, is home to 200 Asian
> Elephants, crocodile, wild boar, water buffalo and gray langur
> monkeys. The park also has Asia's highest concentration of
leopards.
> The Yala reserve covers 391 square miles, but only 56 square miles
> are open to tourists.
>
> The human death toll in Sri Lanka surpassed 21,000. Forty
foreigners
> were among 200 people in Yala who were killed.
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