ABSTRACT
Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are notoriously difficult to predict, with people often saying that such events are ‘overdue’. Therefore, can animals help? Elephants may be able to hear rumbles from afar, or feel the shaking of the ground. Animals may be able to sense infrasound or changes in magnetic fields. Some say that there is no possibility of animals being useful for the prediction of earthquakes. However, there are success stories where thousands of lives have been saved and seismometer zoos exist where a wide range of animals are observed so that an earthquake may be predicted and protected against. To evacuate a city may take days, but simply leaving a house or turning off a fuel supply may still save lives. The unusual behaviour of animals may well give enough indication to mitigate the effects of earthquakes, or a tsunami which might result from movements in the Earth’s crust. In a similar manner, animals may be able to predict a volcanic eruption. The use of animals in this arena should not simply be dismissed.
