单选题
Animal"s "Sixth Sense"
A tsunami was triggered by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean in December, 2004. It killed tens of thousands of people in Asia and East Africa. Wild animals,
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, seem to have escaped that terrible tsunami. "This phenomenon adds weight to notions that they possess a "sixth sense" for
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," experts said.
Sri Lankan wildlife officials have said the giant waves that killed over 24,000 people along the Indian Ocean island"s coast clearly
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wild beasts, with no dead animals found.
"No elephant are dead, not
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a dead rabbit. I think animals can
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disaster. They have a sixth sense. They know when things are happening." H. D. Ratnayake, deputy director of Sri Lanka"s Wildlife Department, said about one month after the tsunami attack. The
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washed floodwaters up to 2 miles inland at Yala National Park in the ravaged southeast, Sri Lanka"s biggest wildlife
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and home to hundreds of wild elephants and several leopards.
"There has been a lot of
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evidence about dogs barking or birds migrating before volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. But it has not been proven," said Matthew van Lierop, an animal behavior
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at Johannesburg Zoo.
"There have been no
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studies because you can"t really test it in a lab or field setting," he told Reuters. Other authorities concurred with this
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.
"Wildlife seems to be able to pick up certain
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, especially birds...there are many reports of birds detecting impending disasters," said Clive Walker, who has written several books on African wildlife.
Animals
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rely on the known senses, such as smell or hearing, to avoid danger such as predators.
The notion of an animal"s "sixth sense"—or
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other mythical power—is an enduring one which the evidence on Sri Lanka"s ravaged coast is likely to add to.
The Romans saw owls
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omens of impending disaster and many ancient cultures viewed elephants as sacred animals endowed with special powers or attributes.