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Birds Fled Area Before Tornadoes Appeared

SternisheFan sends a report from scientists who were tracking a group of birds — golden-winged warblers — in the Appalachian mountains. Just a few days after the birds completed their seasonal migration, they did something odd — they picked up and moved again. Shortly thereafter, a series of storms swept through that area of the U.S., which led to a destructive tornado outbreak (abstract). After the storm had blown over, the team recaptured five of the warblers and removed the geolocators. These are tiny devices weighing about half a gram, which measure light levels. Based on the timing and length of the days they record, these gadgets allow scientists to calculate and track the approximate location of migratory birds. In this case, all five indicated that the birds had taken unprecedented evasive action, beginning one to two days ahead of the storm's arrival. "The warblers in our study flew at least 1,500km (932 miles) in total," Dr. Streby said. They escaped just south of the tornadoes' path — and then went straight home again. By 2 May, all five were back in their nesting area."

8 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. Great observational skills by BitZtream · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wow, someone just now noticed that animals can easily detect incoming low pressure fronts and hide from the weather.

    Guess what, humans are essentially the only ones who can't tell when bad weather is coming. Ask anyone who spends some time in nature rather than hiding in some office or school room.

    Fish, cows, horses, dogs, cats, squirrels, birds, pretty much anything you can think of takes cover well before a storm, except us.

    The warblers weren't running form 'tornados' they were running from low pressure gradients moving in rapidly.

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    1. Re:Great observational skills by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually, my experience is that humans who spend a lot of time outdoors in all types of weather get pretty good at knowing when to take cover as well. The degree to which this is a product of direct (detecting that a low/high pressure front is coming and similar) or indirect (observing the behavior of animals) is hard to determine since most of the time their prognostication is based on putting together various barely noticed clues.

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    2. Re:Great observational skills by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually, my experience is that humans who spend a lot of time outdoors in all types of weather get pretty good at knowing when to take cover as well. The degree to which this is a product of direct (detecting that a low/high pressure front is coming and similar) or indirect (observing the behavior of animals) is hard to determine since most of the time their prognostication is based on putting together various barely noticed clues.

      "It's quiet. Too quiet ..." Always a sign to run for cover.

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    3. Re:Great observational skills by amiga3D · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think the surprise was how far in advance they detected it. We always knew animals are more in touch with the world.

    4. Re:Great observational skills by Immerman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Flying 1500km is a lot more than "taking cover from a storm" - thats a *lot* of calories to spend, especially right after an already strenuous migration. Pressure changes are common occurrences, so the question is what sort of telltales did they pick up on that let them know this was a storm worth running from rather than just taking shelter?

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  2. Re:So the question is... by tompaulco · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Low level harmonics are below what birds can hear too, but they can feel them, and so can we. Of course, Tornadoes that are going to form two days in the future don't produce this deep rumble. They may have sensed the pressure dropping, which humans can also sense, and then they flew away from where they were in hopes of finding higher pressure somewhere else.

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  3. Re:So the question is... by Smauler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The trouble with stories like this is that animals do a whole host of stuff that we cannot explain, and we connect it to events that happen after the fact.

    Situation 1 : Lots of animals are running somewhere. Nothing happens.... they must have just been spooked by something random.

    Situation 2 : Lots of animals are running somewhere. There's a tsunami/earthquake/tornado.... they must have known something we don't.

    Finding that some animals behave in an odd, unexplained way just before a major natural disaster isn't news - Animals behave in an odd, unexplained way all the time.

    There has been lots of genuine research into animal behaviour to try and predict major natural disasters, nearly all of which has been fruitless. Many animals are killed by natural disasters.

    Now, if someone actually predicted a natural disaster by using animal behaviour, that might be interesting. Saying that the animals acted weird just before, when looking back, is suspect.

  4. this is new info??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This has been common knowledge for years, I was taught growing up to pay attention to the animals while in the wild... how is this even news????