Earthchanges foster changes in animal behavior

April 2, 2011 – PAKISTAN – Trees shrouded in ghostly cocoons line the edges of a submerged farm field in the Pakistani village of Sindh, where 2010’s massive floods drove millions of spiders into the trees to spin their webs. Beginning last July, unprecedented monsoons dropped nearly ten years’ worth of rainfall on Pakistan in one week, swelling the country’s rivers. The water was slow to recede, creating vast pools of stagnant water across the countryside. “It was a very slow-motion kind of disaster,” said Russell Watkins, a multimedia editor with the U.K.’s Department for International Development (DFID), the organization tasked with managing Britain’s overseas aid programs. According to Watkins, who photographed the trees during a trip to Pakistan last December, people in Sindh said they’d never seen this phenomenon before the flooding. –National Geographic

Odd animal behavior: In a March 15th interview with radio talk show host Michael Savage, retired geologist Jim Berkland (who predicted the World Series Earthquake of 1989) said unusual animal behavior, along with other factors like tidal patterns and lunar alignment, are earthquake predictors because they indicate changes in the earth’s magnetic field. He cites the recent incident of millions of dead fish turning up along the California coastline prior to the Japan quake and tsunami. Before the Loma Prieta quake in 1989, Berkland noted that in addition to lunar/tidal factors, twice the usual number of cats and dogs were listed as missing by pet owners in California prior to the quake. –Seattle PI

The March 19-21, 2011 incident – “An unusually large number of harp seals have stranded themselves off the coast of Portland, Maine, the latest in a growing list of unusual behavior exhibited by large groups of animals. More than 100 adult harp seals have been spotted so far this season, reports Mendy Garron, regional marine mammal stranding coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Gloucester, Massachusetts. The seals wander south from Canada as the season changes, but this is largest number ever reported. “In some areas they’re reporting three times the normal number of sightings,” Garron told CBS News. “This year, we’ve had four sightings of adult harp seals in North Carolina, which we’ve never had before. We typically don’t see them that far south.” –Right Perspective

What were the creatures running from? On March 22, 2011 a series of major quakes shook the globe. There were two 6.6 earthquakes off the east coast of Honshu Japan followed by a 6.3 and a 6.0. Along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, there was a 6.2 quake and 3 quakes were reported near Spain, along with small quakes in the Czech Republic and France.