Pet Parakeet predicts an Earthquake

[Crozzlow]

Hello All,
An earthquake occured in the midwest this week. I am astonished at the number of people who report that their pets were acting strangely just prior to the event. People believe that animals have a sixth sense that allows them to detect the movement of the tectonic plates before they actually move....an episode of Skeptoid on this subject could be quite interesting.

Be cool,
Crozzlow

[Bishop746]

Did you get this in a newspaper article or local newscast?

The only thing I've ever heard similar is a case concerning sharks. My source for this is a Discovery channel documentary so take all of this with a grain of salt. I certainly due.

Marine biologist put electronic tags on a certain type of shark in a shallow inlet on the Pacific coast and monitored their movements from buoys in the inlet. After a particulary bad storm they retrieved the data and found that all the sharks had left prior to the arrival of the storm. Sorry for the scarce information, my head is full of movie quotes. If anyone has any information on this case or a followup I would be interested.

[DaveyM]

Have there ever been situations in which pets behaved strangely and earthquakes didn't occur?

[LibraryLady]

Welcome, Crozzlow. If you were on these forums longer, you would know better than to insult parakeets. Be forewarned, I am budgie shopping.

[skeptigirl]

It's always after the fact. It amounts to selective memory. I believe the guy who tried to use the number of lost pets in the classifieds was debunked.

You need evidence that the animal behavior can predict quakes and in particular, one needs to do better than anyone can using the average quake stats.

[arthwollipot]

There's plenty of anecdotal evidence that animals react to earthquakes. Problem is that it's all just anecdotal.

[Crozzlow]

Welcome, Crozzlow. If you were on these forums longer, you would know better than to insult parakeets. Be forewarned, I am budgie shopping.
What is a budgie? Can you eat them?:confused:

[LibraryLady]

The word budgie comes from an Australian Aborigine word (http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=budgie) for delicious, so the answer is yes. However, I would not recommend it, as they tend to mass attack any enemies.

Here is the late, great Nick the Budgie in all her glory:

http://forums.randi.org/imagehosting/thum_333944a6f9a985947.jpg (http://forums.randi.org/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=629)

ETA: Sorry for derailing your thread. Please carry on.

[Fnord]

When an animal predicts an earthquake, how does it communicate its predictions to its owner?

"WOOF! Woofwoof! Awoofa!"

"What's that Lassie?"

"Woof, awoofa!"

"There's going to be an earthquake?"

"Woofawoof"!

"... and Timmie's on a jury with Dyan Cannon?"

{whine}

"Oh! Timmie's injured and dying in a canyon!"

(BTW: I used to smuggle budgies, but they were too large and tended to get out and cause too much trouble...)

[Mister Earl]

I want to get a Galatiel (http://www.talkingbirds.com.au/galatiel.php) myself. It's a shame only one currently exists. Pretty bird.