地震预测，动物也是“预报员”(双语)

Throughout China's long history, unusual behavior has been observed in every kind of common animal. Most of the behavior falls into the category of unusual restlessness and disorientation.

Since animals have the capability of acting as predictors of earthquakes, the Chinese scientists have carried out surveys of animal behavior variations prior to earthquakes. A team of scientists including biologists, geophysicists, chemists, meteorologists, and biophysicists conducted a survey in the Tangshan area and in 400 communes in 48 counties around it after the 1976 earthquake. The scientists visited a number of places that were hit by other destructive earthquakes and, through interviews and discussions with local people, collected information on over 2,000 cases of unusual animal behavior occurring prior to an earthquake. The majority of the reports involved domestic animals. Based on this survey a preliminary report was prepared by the Chinese identifying 58 kinds of domestic and wild animals that had demonstrated unusual behavior.

The principal focus of research work in China has been on the behavior of pigeons. Biological studies on pigeons determined that a hundred tiny units exist between the tibia and fibula on a pigeon's leg. These nerve units are connected to the nerve center, and are very sensitive to vibrations. Scientists determined that prior to an earthquake of magnitude 4.0, which occurred in the area of the study, fifty pigeons that had severed connections between the tibia, fibula, and the nerve centers, remained calm before the earthquake, while those with normal connections became startled and flew away.

Because of the success in monitoring unusual animal behavior for the prediction of certain earthquakes, the Chinese, who have pioneered this work, have looked into ways to construct instruments that would duplicate the sensory organs of animals which were able to monitor, and sense, stimuli preceding an earthquake. Researchers found it very difficult to understand the mechanism of response stimuli. Physical or chemical stimuli come out of the earth prior to an earthquake and these must be the stimuli that animals can sense. For example, dogs may be able to hear the microfacturing of rocks a few milliseconds before a quake shock reaches the surface. Electromagnetic changes in the earth prior to an earthquake may be sensed by such animals as sharks and catfish which have low or high frequency receptors and sense such changes actively or passively. Also such electromagnetic field changes could be affecting migrating birds and the navigational ability of fish.