00:00Animals do not have a magical sixth sense to predict disasters.
00:03They have extraordinary senses that we simply do not possess.
00:08This is the truth.
00:09The world often speaks of pets knowing an earthquake is coming,
00:13or of wild creatures fleeing a tsunami hours before it strikes.
00:18It is easy to label this as a mysterious, unknowable power, a kind of foresight.
00:24But the explanation is not found in the supernatural.
00:28It lies in the remarkable, finely-tuned biology of the animals themselves.
00:34Their senses are simply more acute, more sensitive, more varied than our own.
00:42They are not seeing the future.
00:43They are experiencing the present in a much more detailed way.
00:48These are not magical abilities.
00:51They are the results of millions of years of evolution.
00:55Survival often depends on detecting danger before it arrives in full force.
01:00What looks like a mystical prediction to us is, for them, a straightforward response to clear and present information.
01:07Let us begin with the sense of hearing.
01:10Our own ears are quite good, but they operate within a very specific and limited frequency range.
01:16Many animals exist in a world of sound that we cannot even imagine.
01:21Consider the elephant.
01:22These magnificent creatures communicate over vast distances using infrasound.
01:29These are sounds so low in frequency, below 20 hertz, that they are completely inaudible to us.
01:37They travel through the air.
01:39They travel through the ground itself.
01:41An elephant can therefore hear the approach of a distant storm or the tremors of a far-off earthquake
01:46through the sensitive pads on its feet, long before a human would notice anything was amiss.
01:51This is a simple, scientific fact.
01:55Low-frequency sounds travel much farther than high-frequency sounds.
01:59Before a natural disaster like a tsunami, the shifting of tectonic plates can generate powerful infrasound waves.
02:07While we remain oblivious, elephants kilometers away may become agitated.
02:13It is not a premonition.
02:15Dogs, on the other hand, are masters of the high-frequency world.
02:19A dog can hear sounds up to 65,000 hertz, more than double the range of a human.
02:26This is why they respond to a silent dog whistle.
02:29Before a thunderstorm, atmospheric changes, friction of wind, distant lightning strikes.
02:35Your dog may start to whine, pace, or hide under a bed long before you hear the first clap of
02:40thunder.
02:40It is not anxious about the future.
02:43It is reacting to the uncomfortable, high-frequency noises that are already filling the air.
02:49These examples show us a simple, elegant truth.
02:53Animals are not psychic.
02:55They are simply better equipped.
02:58Their hearing is a precision instrument, designed for survival in a world full of subtle cues.
03:04From the deep rumbles felt by an elephant to the piercing whines heard by a dog,
03:09this expanded auditory world provides a wealth of information.
03:13It gives them an early warning system.
03:16Beyond sound, there is a profound sense of touch, amplified to an incredible degree.
03:24Many animals are exquisitely sensitive to vibrations in the ground and changes in air pressure.
03:31This allows them to feel a disaster approaching.
03:34Before an earthquake, the massive tectonic plates deep within the earth do not simply rupture all at once.
03:41They grind and shift, sending out a series of tiny preliminary shock waves.
03:46These are known as P waves, or primary waves.
03:51They travel faster than the more destructive secondary waves, or S waves, that cause the violent shaking we feel.
03:59Humans are almost completely insensitive to these initial P waves, but many animals are not.
04:07Snakes, rodents, other boring creatures.
04:11A snake might suddenly emerge from its winter hibernation.
04:15A flock of birds might take to the sky in unison.
04:19To us, their behavior seems bizarre and inexplicable.
04:23But they are simply reacting to the first physical signal of the impending quake.
04:28They are evacuating a zone that they can feel is becoming unstable moments before we can.
04:35Section 4. The Hidden Senses
04:37Smell and Magnetism
04:39The sensory world of animals extends into realms that are almost completely alien to us.
04:45Smell, for instance, is more than just a way to find food or avoid predators.
04:51For many animals, it is a way to read the very chemistry of the environment.
04:57A dog's nose is a scientific marvel, estimated to be between 10,000 and 100,000 times more sensitive than
05:07our own.
05:08They can detect certain scents in parts per trillion.
05:13Before a rainstorm, the air becomes heavy with the smell of ozone and geosamine.
05:19The earthy scent released by soil bacteria.
05:23We might only notice this smell as the first drops fall.
05:26But a dog has likely been smelling it for some time.
05:29Changes in wind patterns ahead of a weather front carry new and different odors from miles away.
05:34An animal with a superior nose can detect the scent of wet earth or disturb vegetation long before the storm
05:40itself is visible.
05:41Then there is the truly remarkable sense of magnetoreception.
05:45This is the ability to perceive the earth's magnetic field.
05:49We are only just beginning to understand this sense.
05:52But we know many animals possess it.
05:54Migratory birds, sea turtles, and even some fish.
05:58The animal kingdom is not a realm of magic and fortune telling.
06:02It is a world of exquisite sensitivity.
06:05Ask yourself what are they sensing that I am not.
06:08This is a far more fascinating question.
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