It’s been well-documented that animals are better than we are at picking up little changes in the surrounding world. Watch your dog lose his marbles 30 minutes before a thunderstorm arrives and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. It only makes sense then, that the pandas at Wolong National Nature Reserve near Chengdu, China, realized that an earthquake was coming long before the ground started shaking up to half an hour before, according to a British tourist who noticed a marked difference in behavior.
The pandas, which had been relaxing and eating bamboo, suddenly all got up and began to parade around their facility, according to Diane Etkins, who witnessed the event. It’s understandable for one or two animals to do such a thing or for pack animals to engage in mass behavior. There are however, 86 adult pandas at the Wolong Reserve and all of them acting in a strange manner simultaneously very clearly demonstrates that something was going on, even if it wasn’t an early detection of the earthquake.
Still, that may be the best explanation for the change in behavior. There are multiple accounts of animals fleeing or retreating into cages prior to the tsunami that struck Sri Lanka in 2004, and while it’s impossible to check the area for stimuli after such a destructive event as a 7.8 magnitude earthquake, there didn’t appear to be anything else capable of causing the behavior.
There are unsubstantiated reports that the wild pandas moved to higher terrain in the hours before the quake; something that would have definitely stirred up anxiety in the captives, as they would have been unable to follow their instincts.
译文:
国宝大熊猫对地震先知先觉？
对于周围的环境，动物比我们人类更能洞悉细微变化，这一点已被证实。观察一下你的狗，在暴风雨来临前的三十分钟，它就开始变得神志不清，你就明白我所言何意了。根据一个英国游客对大熊猫行为怪异的观察，靠近成都的卧龙自然保护区的大熊猫在地震发生很早之前到地震发生前三十分钟，就已意识到地震的来临。
根据一个叫黛安．艾特金斯的目击者称，平日里总是吃着竹子，懒洋洋地在一旁休憩的大熊猫，突然全体在它们的住所一带转悠。可以理解一只或是两只动物有此举动，或是牲畜群集体行动。但是，卧龙自然保护区86只成年大熊猫同时集体做出如此奇怪的举动，显然预示着有事即将发生，即使这并不是地震来临的明显预示。
然而，对于这一变化的举动也许还是有最佳解释。在2004年，斯里兰卡的海啸发生之前，就有大量的动物四处逃散或是躲避到笼子里，然而，在发生了像7.8级地震这样破坏性事件之后，不可能因某种刺激监察该地区，似乎没有什么东西可以引起动物们的怪异行为。
未经证实的报告显示，野生大熊猫在地震发生前的几小时转移到地势高的地区。可以确定，的确有某种东西激起了这些被困者们的烦躁，否则他们也就不能靠直觉行动了。