new delhi ravi corea president of the sri lanka wildlife conservation society which is based in nutley new jersey was in sri lanka when the massive waves struck he told the latest issue of the national geographic that elephants were seen running away and others saw bats frantically flying away just before the tsunami struck the magazine also mentioned two pet dogs which refused to go for their daily runs on the beach that morningnational geographic quoted alan rabinowitz director for science and exploration at the bronx zoobased wildlife conservation society in new york as saying animals can sense impending danger by detecting subtle or abrupt shifts in the environment earthquakes bring vibrational changes on land and in water while storms cause electromagnetic changes in the atmosphere he said some animals have an acute sense of hearing and smell that allow them to determine something coming towards them long before humans might know that something is there another report quoted goson sipasad manager of the khao lak national park as saying that all the elephants under his care went high in the hills and had not yet returned he believes not a single jumbo perished in or around the park we have not found any dead animals along this part of the coast he says more than 3000 people were killed by the tsunami at khao lakat another place in thailand elephants intuition proved lucky for four japanese tourists who had climbed aboard them the day of the tsunami they all survived carried on the elephants backs to the hillsnational geographic also said that along indias cuddalore coast where thousands of people perished buffaloes goats and dogs were found unharmed flamingoes that breed this time of year at the point calimere wildlife sanctuary flew to higher ground beforehand it saidat one time humans also had this sixth sense rabinowitz has said but lost the ability when it was no longer needed or used joyce poole who has worked with african elephants for 25 years and is now based in norway told the magazine that the reports about elephant behaviour in sri lanka did not surprise her i have been with elephants during two small tremors and on both occasions the elephants ran in alarm several seconds before i felt the tremor she said the article said that in japan one of the worlds most earthquakeprone countries researchers have long studied animals in hopes of discovering what they hear or feel before the earth shakes and hoped that animals may be used as a prediction tool some us seismologists on the other hand are sceptical what were faced with is a lot of anecdotes said andy michael a geophysicist at usgs animals react to so many things being hungry defending their territories mating predators so its hard to have a controlled study to get that advanced warning signal