Animal Behavior and Natural Disasters
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2018) | Viewed by 33916
Special Issue Editors
Interests: animal behaviour; animal welfare particularly in non-mammalian species and species that have complex needs in captivity, such as psittacines, amphibians and reptiles.
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Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Anomalous behavior of animals before natural disasters, including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunami and landslides, has been often reported. As an early example, Plinius reported anomalous behavior of aquatic birds that had been observed the day before the Vesuvius eruption (79 AD). On the occasion of the landslide in 1963 near the Vajont dam (North Italy), local people referred to anomalous behavior of domestic animals observed some hours before the event. In these cases, the cause of the anomalies is not known, but they are probably related to micro-fracturing processes, micro tremors/movements, magma upload, and temperature increase.
In recent years, a great deal of evidence has indicated that the earthquake generation process is a critical phenomenon, but before it reaches the critical point, a regional system of faults goes through a period of accelerating seismicity and seismic energy release, which comprises the signature of the approach to the critical state. By the end of this stage the critical point has been attained and stress is determined by friction in the shear zone, with strain caused by an avalanche of fusing cracks leading to irreversible instability and rupture. Thus, changes in the physical/chemical state of the earth precede earthquakes, known as seismic precursors. These precursors, evident in their genesis, are ground uplift and tilt, gas emissions, underground water level fluctuations, changes in groundwater chemistry, changes in the electrical resistivity of rocks and electric, magnetic and electromagnetic emissions from the ground. Anomalous behaviors of a variety of animals, including mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes and insects, have been observed before earthquakes. Anomalous behaviors have been reported in domestic animals, including hens not hatching their eggs, cows not milking or bees abandoning their hives some days or hours before strong earthquakes. At the moment, the precise cause of these behaviors is not known, but it is evident that they are related to some of the phenomena listed above.
Finally, studies regarding the animals behavior during other natural disasters, such as hurricanes, droughts and fire will be considered for publication.
In conclusion, the proposed Special Issue is focused on improving our understanding of anomalous behavior of animals before and during the natural disasters, with a focus on understanding of the causes of such behavior.
I encourage the researchers to submit papers regarding all the topics mentioned above.
Dr. Pier Francesco Bagi
Dr. Rachel Grant
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- animals
- behaviours
- natural disasters
- evidences
- causes
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