[/floatr]Yomiuri: Did animals give quake warning?
People in areas affected by the March 11 earthquake have reported witnessing unusual behavior by wild animals shortly before the magnitude-9 temblor hit, stories that lend support to the idea that animals can anticipate natural disasters. "It must've been a warning," said Sachiko Abe, 66, who has lived in disaster-hit Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, for more than 30 years. For five years, Abe had risen before dawn five days a week to drive her fisherman husband to work. When she opened the front door of her house at around 1:50 a.m. on March 11, she was immediately struck by the cacophony being made by a murder of crows. She had never heard the birds make such a racket before. Peering into the dark sky, she could make out about 50 crows flying around -- three times as many as she would usually expect in the area...Although scientists have not established whether there is a relationship between animal behavior and earthquakes, there exists an abundance of anecdotal evidence of animals' ability to predict natural disasters. The Fire and Disaster Management Agency has collected accounts of such incidents and published them on its Web site, under the heading "information on legends related to national disasters"...more...
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