Personally, I think the animal sixth sense thing is bs, at least in this case. I think the simpler explanation is that humans are occupying most of the areas close to the sea and that you just don't see that many animals around the sea usually. I mean, what about Phuket, all you see there is a stray dog or the little monkeys people carry on their shoulders to show them off. You won't see any wild animals anywhere near the beach there. I'm sure some animals died as well, where they were, but there just weren't that many.
This report came from a nature preserve on the coast in Sri Lanka. I haven't been to Phuket or Aceh but I've seen a lot of wildlife along the coast of Malaysia and other parts of Indonesia. Even in Bali which has a huge human population its not unusual to see monkeys in the parks at around the beaches at night.
There are dogs that are trained specifically to detect potential heart attacks, cancer and earthquakes. Keep in mind that many animals, particualrly those that are not domesticated, still carry with them extremely heightened senses. Even domesticated dogs have hearing ranges that FAR exceed humans and their sense of smell is so refined, they can determine the smell of their master on garments that are days old and have been sitting out in the rain. And those are domesticated animals, not animals in the wild that rely completely on their senses for survival.
Yeah, humans lost their increased capacity for the other senses when we increased our cranial capacity. Apparently, we can't have our cake and eat it too. And for that very reason, I definitely pay attention to the wildlife around me, wherever I am. Have you ever noticed in horror flicks when people ask something about why is it so quiet all of the sudden? It's cuz the animals left, and you should too!
True. It also doesn't help that we haven't needed those senses for over a century. When you start getting civilized, you lose the senses because you don't use them.
"That's why I'm different. I can sense the slightest human suffering." "You sensing anything right now?"
Why can't i have my cake and eat it too? what you want me to sit and look at it....i mean the purpose of the cake is to be eaten..why limit my ability to do so?
When the wave is over open ocean it has zero effect on marine life. Dogs can even detect epileptic seizures (before they happen of course).
Not to turn this into a D&D topic, but... When, in our human history, have we ever been known to have a "sixth sense"? I've never been shown it. Meggo: Past 100 years? Please divulge.
When did I say anything about past 100 years? Provided that you follow the whole evolution thing, humanoids have been evolving for 8 million years, they became bipedal somewhere around 4 million years ago, and right around then is when we (as a species) began to increase cranial capacity. With this increase in brain size, we also refined our motor skills (complex tool making) and became abstract thinkers (problem solving and creative free thinking) - this is where we lose our acuity of our other senses, not we lost our sixth sense. Other animals have a higher percentage of their brain dedicated to their senses (birds have huge ocular sections, dogs have smell, bats and ears, etc...) Humans developed abstract thinking instead of retaining a specialized sense. That's all I was trying to say.
If you really think about the movie sixth sense, and tie everything together, it would not be entirely out of line to say that the Tsunami may have naturally selected for a sixth sense. The pure scale of death leads to no conclusion as to why some people survived and some people did not. The general conclusion has been, thus far, that survival was pure luck. Right time and right place? But would evolution have concluded that it was pure luck. Not likely. Some genetic trait was likely selected for when you have a tradgedy on this level of scale. Ironically and terribly, the survivors did in fact see dead people. Which is basically the same thing as saying they, for some unknown reason, survived, despite the fact that everyone around them died, and that they indeed may have sixth sense of perception that saved their lives. Perhaps they were selected to survive. I mean, how do you explain their survival. A sixth sense may have been selected for.
Birds can navigate using the Earth's magnetic fields, no? It is theorized that earthquakes can cause fluctuations in the magnetic field or send off radio waves. So why is it unreasonable to assume that other animals can pick-up on this warning signal also?
Not only that. And I could be way off here given my limited knowledge of physics, but if string theory is accurate, meaning that all 4 forces (inluding magnetic) are tied together by one foumla at the atomic level it would mean that all living species would at some level be tied into the magnetic fluctuations in the earth. Thus giving rise to the possiblity that we do have knowledge of events thats alter the magnetic field. Whether or not we process that information would be irrevelant. It would mean we either had, or could have, a sixth sense.
To continue along that thought... Even more fascinating is if the strings do exist in our body at the subatomic level or whatever, fluctuate during seismic events, and cannot be peceived as data by the brain, but were instead perceived by a computer that analyzed the vibrations for us, then warned us of impending doom. How crazy would that be? The computer would intepret our sixth sense for us. And it's not out of the realm of possibilty given that string theory is mathematically possible. If indeed that happened, how would evolution explain that sequence of events?
