BBC Radio 4: Animal Instincts and the Tsunami
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“After the earthquake and devastating tsunami in South East Asia, stories emerged from Sri Lanka and Thailand that animals appeared to act oddly ahead of the tsunami. Elephants were said to have trumpeted and fled whilst flocks of birds were seen flying inland. There also appears to have been little loss of native wildlife with very few dead animals found.

Nature explores the seismic and infrasonic waves that are generated by earthquakes and tsunamis and how they might be felt or heard. For example, scientists have known for several years that elephants communicate using infrasound – low frequency waves of sound inaudible to the human ear. With their finely tuned senses and extreme awareness of everything in their environment, were elephants and other animals able to detect the approaching tsunami and head inland or to higher ground in time?”

This is a fascinating documentary. It’s amazing to listen to the low frequency infrasonic waves that were recorded at the time of the tsunami, which apparently animals could hear.

Sometimes I wonder, as our species evolves and we become increasing dependant on technology, are we tuning out of the natural rhythm of the earth? Are we losing our instincts?