Many animals, including snakes, sometimes exhibit unusual behaviors before an earthquake. For example, some reports claim that animals become agitated, restless, or try to flee the area before an earthquake. This could be due to heightened sensitivity to changes in their environment, such as shifts in air pressure, vibrations, or even the release of certain gases from the earth before an earthquake.
One of the most notable examples of unusual animal behavior occurred before the Tangshan earthquake in China in 1976, which killed over 240,000 people. In the days leading up to the earthquake, there were reports of animals, including snakes, acting strangely. Some people claimed that snakes were seen leaving their burrows or homes in unusual numbers. There were also reports of various animals becoming restless, fleeing, or behaving erratically before the quake struck.
In the days before the İzmit earthquake in Turkey in 1999, some locals reported that snakes and other animals in the region behaved differently, including increased aggression or movement. These reports were anecdotal, and no scientific studies have conclusively linked these behaviors to the impending earthquake.
Scientists theorize that animals have much more sensitive sensory perception than humans in some areas. Snakes, for example, are sensitive to vibrations through their bodies, especially through their bellies. It’s possible that they might sense minor seismic tremors or ground movements that humans cannot feel, and this could explain some of the observed behavior. There also are theories suggesting that changes in the Earth’s crust before an earthquake could lead to the release of gases like radon, which animals may be able to detect.
Despite anecdotal reports, there is no consistent pattern in animal behavior that can reliably predict an earthquake, however. Earthquakes are extremely complex phenomena, and their occurrence can be influenced by a wide variety of factors, making prediction difficult. No animal has been shown to be able to predict earthquakes with enough consistency to be used as a reliable method of forecasting.
