Animals’ Early Warning Systems

 

By Brent Frazee /

©2005 The Kansas City Star,

Knight Ridder Newspaper.

Distributed by Tribune Media Service International.

 

Biologists report wildlife’s amazing ability to sense trouble long before humans do

 

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When Joe Ward went fishing in Florida one day last September, he didn’t need a weather report to tell him that big trouble was on the way. All he had to do was observe the behavior of the area’s wildlife.

 

“The fish were just biting like crazy, like they were storing up,” says Ward. “There wasn’t a bird anywhere, not even a gull or a pelican, which is very unusual down here. And on the docks, the insects—the ants, everything—were climbing high.”

 

The next day Hurricane Frances hit.

 

Was this an isolated incident? Hardly.

 

“Some people say that animals have a sixth sense. I don’t know if I’d go that far,” says Wildlife Conservation Society research scientist Diana Reiss. “There’s a lot we still have to learn about their behavior. But I don’t think there’s any question that animals can hear, feel and perceive things that we can’t.”

 

Tsunami Survivors

 

When Sri Lanka Wildlife Department deputy director, H.D. Ratnayake, surveyed the destruction left by last December’s tsunami, he was shocked by what he didn’t see. Tens of thousands of humans were killed. But there was very little mortality among wildlife. At Yala National Park, the phenomenon was especially noticeable. Though the human death toll nearby was more than 200, officials found no wildlife carcasses.

 

In the aftermath of the tsunami, wild tales keep surfacing. Residents have reported seeing herds of antelope thundering from a coastal area to the hills before the giant wall of water hit. And nesting flamingos abandoned low-lying areas, heading for the safety of higher ground.

 

How did they know trouble was on the way? Scientists credit a well-tuned sensory system. “Animals have to adapt to their environment to survive,” Reiss says. Changes in atmospheric conditions also may have played a part, some scientists say.

Vocabulary Focus

like crazy (idiom) to an extreme level

sixth sense (n) an ability that seems to give one information without using the five senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell

or taste

mortality (n) [mC:5tAliti] death; the number of deaths within a particular society and within a particular period of time

phenomenon (n) [fi5nCminEn] something unusual or interesting that exists and can be seen, felt, tasted, etc.

 

Specialized Terms

carcass (n) 动物尸体 the body of a dead animal

动物预警系统

李琳  译

 

生物学家指出：野生动物的灾难预警能力惊人，速度比人类快多了

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去年9月的某一天，乔·沃德在佛州钓鱼。不需要气象报告，只需观察该区野生动物的动态，他就知道要有大麻烦了。   

“鱼群疯狂地吞饵，好像要囤积粮食似的，”华德说：“周围不见鸟的踪影，连海鸥或鹈鹕都没有，这在附近是极不寻常的事。而码头上，蚂蚁等所有昆虫都纷纷往高处爬。”   

第二天，飓风法兰西就来袭了。   

这只是偶发的单一事件吗？很难说是。   

“有些人说动物有第六感，这点我较为保留。”野生动物保护学会的研究员黛安娜·瑞丝说：“对于它们的行为，我们还有很多要了解的，但我认为毫无疑问地，动物能听到、感觉到与意识到一些我们不知道的事情。”

 

海啸生还者   

斯里兰卡野生动物保护局副局长 H·D·拉特纳亚克针对去年12月海啸后的残局做调查，惊讶地发现了一些先前没注意到的现象。数万人丧生，但野生动物的遇难率却非常低，这现象在亚拉国家公园格外明显。附近的遇难人数超过200人，但官方却没发现野生动物的尸体。   

海啸发生后余波荡漾之际，怪诞的传说就不断浮现。居民曾报告，在巨浪袭击前，看到成群的羚羊从沿海地区轰隆隆地狂奔到山上，习惯于筑巢的红鹤也放弃了低洼地区，而往安全的高处迁移。   

它们怎么知道灾难就要发生呢？科学家相信可归功于一种精确的感知系统。瑞丝说：“动物必须适应环境以求生存。”有些科学家则说，大气层的变化可能也是原因之一。