Reply #72: Tsunamis Kill People In Sri Lanka, But Not Animals

[allemand]

POSTED: 7:41 am EST December 29, 2004

YALA NATIONAL PARK, Sri Lanka -- Wildlife officials in Sri Lanka expressed surprise Wednesday that they found no evidence of large-scale animal deaths from the weekend's massive tsunami - indicating that animals may have sensed the wave coming and fled to higher ground.

An Associated Press photographer who flew over Sri Lanka's Yala National Park in an air force helicopter saw abundant wildlife, including elephants, buffalo, deer, and not a single animal corpse.

Floodwaters from the tsunami swept into the park, uprooting trees and toppling cars onto their roofs -- one red car even ended up on top of a huge tree -- but the animals apparently were not harmed and may have sought out high ground, said Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, whose Jetwing Eco Holidays ran a hotel in the park.

"This is very interesting. I am finding bodies of humans, but I have yet to see a dead animal," said Wijeyeratne, whose hotel in the park was totally destroyed in Sunday's tidal surge. "Maybe what we think is true, that animals have a sixth sense," Wijeyeratne said.

More:
http://www.thewbalchannel.com/news/4031889/detail.html

Interesting, but not really that surprising:

Animals are not curious. They don't flock to the beaches to look why the sea has suddenly receded. And they start to run once they hear a noise as loud as a jet engine.