Animals’ "Sixth Sense"
A tsunami was triggered by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean in December, 2004.
It killed tens of thousands of people in Asia and East Africa. Wild animals,
1 , seem to have escaped that terrible
tsunami. This phenomenon adds weight to notions that they possess a "sixth
sense" for 2 , experts said.
Sri Lankan wildlife officials have said the giant waves that killed over
24,000 people along the Indian Ocean island’s coast clearly
3 wild beasts, with no dead animals found.
"No elephants are dead, not 4 a dead
rabbit. I think animals can 5 disaster.
They have a sixth sense. They know when things are happening," H.D. Ratnayake,
deputy director of Sri Lanka’s Wildlife Department, said about one month after
the tsunami attack. The 6 washed
floodwaters up to 2 miles inland at Yala National Park in the ravaged southeast,
Sri Lanka’s biggest wildlife 7 and home
to hundreds of wild elephants and several leopards. "There has
been a lot of 8 evidence about dogs
barking or birds migrating before volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. But it has
not been proven," said Matthew van Lierop, an animal behavior 9 at Johannesburg Zoo. "There
have been no 10 studies because you
can’t really test it in a lab or field setting," he told Reuters. Other
authorities concurred with this 11 . "Wildlife seem to be able to pick up certain 12 , especially birds…there are many reports of
birds detecting impending disasters," said Clive Walker, who has written several
books on African wildlife. Animals 13
rely on the known senses such as smell or hearing to avoid danger
such as predators. The notion of an animal "sixth sense" — or
14 other mythical power is an enduring
one which the evidence on Sri Lanka’s ravaged coast is likely to add
to. The Romans saw owls 15 omens of impending disaster and many ancient cultures viewed elephants as
sacred animals endowed with special power or attributes.