Animals are important factors in our lives and they have the same rights as us. On Earth, animals of all kinds lived freely in nature until some of them went extinct. Since they are more connected to nature and the earth itself, they may have the ability to feel when something is going to happen in terms of nature, like an earthquake or a storm.
There are a lot of animals that have this “gift” and you may think that the stories from the last part of the article are not true.
Cats
A cat can’t actually tell the future with her senses, but she can hear, smell, and see better than a human, so its reaction can show us something that we don’t know already. Maybe they know or can feel more than we think. We will never know, they are cats.
Dogs
The dog is man’s best friend since forever. This is actually a true fact due to the loyalty and protection that a dog gives us. Besides that, a dog’s energy is higher and more developed and they can predict a human’s illness or even death. This type of detection is based on the energy and emotions a human has because dogs feel them.
Groundhogs
The most popular animal known for predicting weather is obviously the groundhog. The people are heading to Pennsylvania every year on February 2nd to find out if Punxsutawney Phil is predicting six more weeks of winter or if there will be an early spring. If the “chubby little prophet” comes out of his hole and sees his shadow, he will retreat and there will be six more weeks of winter weather. If otherwise, there will be an early spring.
Like in every event, you need competition. Georgia’s own weather-predicting groundhog is General Beauregard Lee. PolitiFact decreed a winner, in 2011, showed that General Lee is more accurate, 60% for early springs compared to Phill’s 39%
Butterflies and bees
If butterflies and bees disappear from the flower beds, there are high chances for a rainstorm to come. Unfortunately, you can see them only on summer days.
Ladybugs
The folklore stories say that if you see ladybugs around you, that means the good weather is near you, if it’s the other way round you may expect some cold or rainy times.
Ants
Ants have developed sensitive antennae and can detect with them falling barometric pressure caused by the rains. It has been observed that some species, even 24 hours before a rainfall have started to build water barriers around the nest to prevent water from flooding the colony. Fire ants survive a flood by forming a raft by crossing their legs. In this way, they can float above the water for days or even weeks.
Sheeps
“When sheep gather in a huddle, tomorrow will have a puddle”, maybe you heard this phrase at least once. It may not be a 100% accurate weather indicator, but the rhyme is cute.
Another way people find that they’re going to get heavy rain, in Iceland people thinks that if their sheep urinate more often it means bad weather is coming, but it doesn’t have a solid base.
Sharks
Sharks are also smart animals when it comes to predicting bad weather. Scientists proved the fact that sharks swam into much deeper water to be protected by storms. The study was done on a group of blacktip sharks, which responded to the falling barometric pressure caused by the storm.
Cows
Farmers know it better. When their cows are laying down, the heavy rain it’s coming. A recent study at the University of Arizona shows that a cow when lying down, it conserves heat before the rain is coming (usually with a drop in temperature).
Birds
The birds may be great at “predicting” the future. There are studies on birds that migrate to see how they can figure out which of their paths are tornadoes and storms. A reason this forecast happens is possible to be their infrasound perception or they just know depending on the season which way the bad weather goes.
If you see many birds straddling power lines, sudden migration, or seagulls flying in from the coast it means that a maybe rainstorm is coming
Why do animals have strange behavior before earthquakes?
Any animal can definitely feel an earthquake faster than any human being, like a sixth sense. Thunders and earthquakes emit infrasound, sound waves with a frequency that human ears can’t perceive, but guess what, animal ears do.
People since the old days have discovered strange behavior in animals before a bad event. An earthquake shook a city in Ancient Greece thousands of years ago and records from that time report the fact that animals ran from the city in herds.
In China, animals saved a lot of lives by predicting a 7.3 magnitude earthquake. That happened in 1975, in Haicheng. The animals from the city had an unusual behavior and that was the moment when the Chinese authorities evacuate one million people, a few days before the earthquake. People told how the chickens refused to enter the coops, cows and horses were restless, and ducks were agitated. Also, the rats and snakes on the roads appeared to be “frozen”
In 2004, in Sri Lanka, elephants ran to higher grounds, dogs wouldn’t go outside and flamingos fled the beaches. Shortly after people saw this, a tsunami hit the island. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough, the tsunami was too powerful and killed hundreds of thousands of people.
Animals can’t really tell the future but some of them have more developed and sharper senses that show us nature-related events before we realize what is happening.
Read more:
What does catnip actually do to cats?
15 Rarest, Weirdest and Beautiful Sea Creatures
