Can animals predict natural disasters? A blogger from Shandong province, eastern China, reported that his animals grew extremely agitated weeks before the earthquake struck there (Times Online, May 13).

History is full of similar stories of animals behaving strangely before earthquakes. Out of curiosity, an earthquake specialist from the US Geological Survey in San Francisco kept a record of the numbers of small ads for lost pets in the local newspaper. He found there was a dramatic upsurge in missing pets weeks before a quake. How animals could forecast earthquakes is not known.

Animals also seem to forecast severe weather. There were many reports of bizarre animal behaviour before the cyclone that devastated Bangladesh (then called East Pakistan), in November 1970. For example, dogs howled endlessly for days, cattle became restless and stopped eating and ants moved to higher positions.

Folklore is rich in sayings about animals forecasting the weather, and there may be some truth in them. Some birds and bats avoid storms by picking up changes in air pressure using their eardrums like barometers. Even sharks seek safe waters before a hurricane, possibly by detecting pressure changes in the sea.