OK DUers explain this- Frog Migration: Omen to China Earthquake Disaster

http://www.weirdasianews.com/2008/05/13/frog-migration-omen-to-china-earthquake-disaster/
<snip>
On May 5th, many Chinese locals noticed thousands of frogs on the move. They were seen traveling without fear of traffic as they crossed streets in mass floods.

Many Chinese sensed the migration as a bad omen of a coming natural disaster, but the Chinese government told them that it was just a natural migration for the purpose of propagation. This calmed the people and no one took the omen very seriously.

On Monday, 12th of May, at about 2:45pm, central China region recorded a 7.8-magnitude quake which occured near Wenchuan County, Sichuan province, that killed nearly 10,000 people.




What did the frogs know that others did not??

China bloggers cook up quake conspiracies
Hannah Fletcher

As the death toll in China's Sichuan province climbs, the nation’s bloggers have joined together in the search for a scapegoat.

Broadband connections across the country are pulsing with rumours of "earthquake omens" involving toads or butterflies - all allegedly ignored by the authorities. Some even talk of a vast pre-Olympic conspiracy.

One blogger from Shandong province, in eastern China, wrote that more than a month ago, he went to his local earthquake resesarch centre several times to report that his animals had been disturbed and restless.

But, he wrote: "They not only ridiculed me, they accused me of making up stories."
Related Links

Other blogs link to Chinese newspaper reports of bizarre natural occurrences in the past few weeks.

The Chutian Metropolis Daily reported that on April 26, 80,000 tonnes of water suddenly drained from a large pond in Enshi, Hubei province. The province shares a border with Chongqing Municipality, which was devastated by the earthquake on Monday.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3284409&mesg_id=3284409

As for the Frogs and their omen, Chinese scientists stated animals have much better sense than human on detecting the natural disasters like this.

Animals always know first.

Phuket, Thailand? You can learn a lot from them, I'm thinking.

(And I think elephants specifically headed out without being coerced.)

Correct

but there were animals on some of the very small islands that changed behaviors and the elders of the Moken (Sea Gypsies) forced their villagers to the high ground hours before the Tsunami struck, saving everyone in the village. Other villages were not so successful and were wiped out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moken
The islands where the Moken live received much media attention in 2005 during the Southeast Asia Tsunami recovery, where hundreds of thousands of lives were lost in the disaster. As they are keenly aware of the sea, the Moken in some areas knew the tsunami that struck on December 26, 2004 was coming,<9> and managed to preserve many lives.

However in the coastal villages of Phang Nga Province, such as Tap Tawan, the Moken suffered severe devastation to housing and fishing boats in common with other Moken communities.<10>




By a strange coincidence a well known Thai movie star was doing some eco tourism with them (most Thais would hardly know they existed)and because of that what happened was well documented and is shown here in this amazing CBS 60 minute story

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/18/60minutes/main681558.shtml

Animals and people with knowledge and collective memory are better able to recognize disaster.

http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-5-14/70636.html

Someone will pay big time.

...

Maybe it's completely apocryphal, but I've read stories about animals getting agitated before earthquakes for years.


:shrug:

hurricane warnings. Dogs and livestock animals are also very antsy before hurricanes.

and my cat is always nuts....what to do???

Somebody sees an animal do something funny... nothing happens... they forget about.

Somebody sees an animal do something funny... there's an earthquake... then they must be related!

:eyes:

Asian tsunami. Why did the birds fly inland?

I give up. How did the elephants head for the hills?

Was it the first time elephants ever went up a hill?

Tsunami - there warnings were such an oddity that the villagers did not believe the elders but the elders insisted and they moved to higher ground hours before the Tsunami hit.

I think there might be some difference between predicting a tsunami, and predicting an earthquake.

the trigger was observing changes in animal and cricket behavior.

If one is possible it seems that the other is also.

:shrug:

and I believe that their move to higher ground preceeded feeling the earthquake.

Gott mit thems.

although seismic movement days before and that water draining may well have been signs. Not sure what to make of the frogs since I don't believe in omens. That said animals are usually aware of most things before we are.

Edit - spelling

Tsunami warnings are common after an earthquake, and a retreating shoreline means run like hell.

check your three day emergency kit, just to make sure it's up to date. I think there are geophysical changes that animals and some people do sense.

She'll know what to do.

:P

:D

:rofl:

That's a DUzy :D

frogs do migrate, sometimes in large groups.

that's why wildlife crossings under roads in wilderness areas are installed, because so many frogs and other critters are moving at once that it's disturbing to most drivers to roll through.

this is an old myth, that animals have some sort of extra sense that warns them of earthquakes. I'm one of the dubious types, but maybe it's possible.

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