Jill's Pick from Around the World: Toads 'predict earthquakes'


Photo credit: nature.com

Toads may be able to predict earthquakes, according to a serendipitous set of observations made in Italy. After every earthquake stories emerge of animals behaving strangely before the ground shook. But hard evidence of animals responding to some kind of mysterious pre-earthquake cue has been lacking. Now, Rachel Grant of the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, reports that common toads (Bufo bufo) showed a dramatic change in behaviour five days before an earthquake shook L’Aquila, Italy in April 2009. Grant and her colleague found the toads abandoning spawning days before the shaking started, they report in the Journal of Zoology.
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Posted by WILDNEWJERSEY at 4/8/2010 10:00 AM
Categories: Jill's Pick from Around the World, Amphibians
Tags: earthquakes italy common toads toads behavior
 

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