Monitoring the behavior of tagged animal species for weather forecasting has been conducted for a long time. Recently, however, scientists are “recruiting” additional animals in an effort to predict earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other natural phenomena.
The project team from the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior in Germany is enlisting thousands of dogs, goats, and other farm animals, as well as various wildlife species, for studies that will track their movements from space.
Goats exhibit good behavior in predicting major volcanic eruptions. (Photo: Shutterstock).
The program utilizes small transmitters attached to mammals, birds, and insects. The detailed movements of these creatures will be monitored from a specialized satellite set to launch in 2025.
Researchers state that the goal is not only to study how these animals react to impending natural events like volcanic eruptions but also to gain new insights into migration patterns, the spread of diseases among animals, and the impacts of climate crises.
Martin Wikelski, the project leader, remarked: “We hope to launch about 6 satellites and establish a global observation network that will not only provide insights into the movements and health of wildlife across the planet but also reveal how organisms respond to natural phenomena such as earthquakes.”
Last week, Wikelski noted that the value of studying tagged animal species in the area has been demonstrated through initial experiments in Sicily on the slopes of Mount Etna. Goats exhibit good behavior in predicting major volcanic eruptions. Sensors indicated that these animals became anxious prior to eruptions and refused to move to higher pastures that they usually frequented.
Similarly, researchers tracked dogs, sheep, and other farm animals in the Abruzzo mountains outside Rome, Italy, and found that they also predictably reacted to 7 out of 8 major earthquakes in the region over the past 12 years.
Stories of animals displaying strange behavior before earthquakes or eruptions are not new. The Greek historian Thucydides noted that rats, dogs, snakes, and weasels fled the city of Helice just before an earthquake struck in 373 BC. Likewise, the Haicheng earthquake in 1975 in China occurred after people observed snakes and rats leaving their burrows.
