According to recent estimates, the earthquake that hit China on Monday could leave 10,000 people dead. (Update: Now they’re saying the death toll could be as high as 50,000.) Web users are saying that the catastrophe could have been avoided, if only they had listened to the toads.
Two days before the quake thousands of toads suddenly decided to move across a bridge in Taizhou, a town in the Jiangsu province (see photos). Chinese web users are wondering why the local authorities didn’t relate the event to the imminence of an earthquake, and why scientists didn’t take notice of the bizarre disappearance of a lake in Enshi, in the Hubei province, on April 26 (see photos).
A seismologist tells us that the Chinese have long relied on the behaviour of animals to predict earthquakes. Although there’s no scientific study to back up the farmers’ claims, the idea that toads sensed the earthquake should not be ruled out.
