Animals not caught in tsunami destruction

What did they know and when did they know it?  In areas where the destruction was the greatest and the loss of human life was largest, there were no animals caught in the waves that crashed up onto the shores.

In Sri Lanka, the island nation off India's southern tip, more than 30,000 people were killed. Yet at Yala National Park, just up the coast from where the destruction was most severe, all the elephants, leopards, deer and other wild animals managed to survive the mighty waves, said H.D. Ratnayake, deputy director of the country's wildlife department.

"I haven't seen any effects on the animals," he said. "They all escaped." Asked to explain the survival of the animals, he said: "They had a feeling. Maybe it was the sound waves."

Although there has been talk for centuries about animals being aware of pending seismic events, no studies have revealed if this is true and, if it is, anything about how they might detect the danger.  There is some historical evidence that observation of animal behavior has helped predict earthquakes:

In China, before an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale hit the city of Haicheng in 1975 during the depths of winter, locals reported seeing snakes emerging from hibernation only to freeze to death on the roads. Strange animal behavior was one of a number of signals that allowed local officials to raise the alarm several days in advance to save virtually the entire population of the city, which was camped outside when the earthquake struck.

In his book "When the Snakes Awake," Helmut Tributsch says he trawled through ancient history and found evidence that before an earthquake struck Helice, Greece, in 373 B.C., snakes, weasels and worms abandoned the city.

Animals aren't infallible in their predictive ability, though.  A large number of street dogs on Phuket Island in Thailand were caught by the waves.  In India, however, out of 2000 animals in the wildlife preserve that was hit by the waves, only one animal -- a boar -- was found dead.