In this age of rapid scientific discovery, there is still no precise way to predict an earthquake. Many countries have state-of-the-art earthquake detection centers– scientific laboratories where seismologists track and analyze the size and movement of waves throughout the Earth. Often, these labs have advanced machinery that produce seismograms, records of the waves caused by movements and shifts in the Earth’s plates. While these methods are not perfect, at the very least, they are scientific. In China, we have snakes. Why pay all that money for “machines” and “research” and “scientists,” when you can just use snakes? In China, a place where ancient methods never seem to die (chopsticks), employees at the earthquake bureau in the southern city of Nanning, have turned to snakes for earthquake detection and warning. Bureau workers have hooked up 24-hour video surveillance on snakes on local farms and watch the feed by broadband transmission back at the lab. Director of the earthquake bureau Jiang Weisong said of the snake system, “Of all the creatures on the earth, snakes are perhaps the most sensitive to earthquakes.” Apparently, snakes can detect an earthquake from over 70 miles away three to five days earlier than humans can feel the rumble. When the snakes sense an earthquake, they slither out of their nests no matter how cold the air is. And when snakes feel threatened by seismic waves, they have been known to slam their heads into the sides of their cage in an effort to escape. These reactions in the past have been consistently correlative to seismic activity. Strangely, the China Daily article exposing this bizarre snake talent did not make any mention of whether or not snakes predicted this week’s earthquake near Taiwan. You know, the one that took down all of East Asia’s internet? Dogs and chickens also demonstrate strange behavior before an earthquake but both animals are just too darn delicious in China to be used in any crazy earthquake detection program.
•China Daily: Nanning Turns to Snake-based System to Predict Quakes