animals spared

theist · December 29, 2004

Tsunami kills people in Sri Lanka, but not animals

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka: As Sri Lanka's human death toll surged, wildlife officials expressed surprise Wednesday that they found no evidence of large-scale deaths among animals from the weekend's massive tsunami.

"This is very interesting. I am finding bodies of humans, but I have yet to see a dead animal,'' said Gehan . Silva Wijeyeratne, whose Jetwing Eco Holidays runs a hotel in the Yala National Park.

The huge waves Sunday washed floodwaters inland into Yala, Sri Lanka's largest wildlife reserve, but the animals apparently were not harmed and may have sought out high ground, Wijeyeratne said.

"Maybe what we think is true, that animals have a sixth sense,'' Wijeyeratne said.

The park is home to 200 elephants, leopards, wild boar and other rare animals.

The human death toll in Sri Lanka surpassed 21,000.--AP

December 31, 2004

Dear Ones,

Animals don't necessarily have a "sixth" sense. If we came out of our unnatural, secured state of living, such as cars, homes with fluffy beds that don't touch the ground & food picked out of a grocery store rather than daily from the earth or forest, then we too would have a 'sixth' sense.

If you sleep on the ground for 50 plus days & lived without much external noise or other human detractions then you will also feel the earths pulsations & hear,smell & taste things like beings who live in entirely natural settings. We are so consummed by our own noise that we aren't aware of much of the natural world. Of course, the tsunami that hit was far away from any everyday occurance for anyone, yet if we spent more time absorbed in feeling life at a more natural level or paid attention to those 'gut' feelings we too might re-develope our 'sixth' sense. I once spent months alone in the woods & after two months could easily distinguish between small animals scurring outside my tent & bears vibrating the ground long before they came near my tent. Plus many other things I never noticed before. An animal is not thinking about morgages, which restaurant to dine at, or souvenirs. Animals are always thinking about some very basic needs that keep them in close contact with the earth at all times. Does that make sense?

December 31, 2004

I did read & see on the internet that many fishes washed ashore in India & people were scrambling to gather them. I also saw a photo of people looking at a dolphin washed ashore in the tsunami & read about a three foot shark that swept into a pool. Maybe they were caught by surprise too or they were weaker & older? Who knows. I am glad Ganesh rescued a group of children on his back.

krsna · January 9, 2005

Elephants Sense Tsunami

> http://news.hinduworld.com/click_frameset.php?

> ref_url=%2Findex.php%3F&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.expressindia.com%2Ffullsto

> ry.php%3Fnewsid%3D40255

THAILAND, January 2, 2005: Agitated elephants felt the tsunami coming,

> and their sensitivity saved about a dozen foreign tourists from the

> fate of thousands killed by the giant waves. "I was surprised because

> the elephants had never cried before," mahout Dang Salangam said on

> Sunday on Khao Lak beach at the eight-elephant business offering rides

> to tourists. The elephants started trumpeting -- in a way Dang, 36,

> and his wife Kulada, 24, said could only be described as crying -- at

> first light, about the time an earthquake measured at a magnitude of

> 9.0 cracked open the sea bed off Indonesia's Sumatra island. The

> elephants soon calmed down. But they started wailing again about an

> hour later and this time they could not be comforted despite their

> mahouts' attempts at reassurance. "The elephants didn't believe the

> mahouts. They just kept running for the hill," said Wit Aniwat, 24,

> who takes the money from tourists and helps them on to the back of

> elephants from a sturdy wooden platform. Those with tourists aboard

> headed for the jungle-clad hill behind the resort beach where at least

> 3,800 people, more than half of them foreigners, would soon be killed.

> The elephants that were not working broke their hefty chains. "Then we

> saw the big wave coming and we started running," Wit said. Around a

> dozen tourists were also running towards the hill from the Khao Lak

> Merlin Resort, one of a line of hotels strung along the 10 km (6-mile)

> beach especially popular with Scandinavians and Germans. "The mahouts

> managed to turn the elephants to lift the tourists onto their backs,"

> Kulada said. She used her hands to describe how the huge beasts used

> their trunks to pluck the foreigners from the ground and deposit them

> on their backs. The elephants charged up the hill through the jungle,

> then stopped. The tsunami drove up to 1 km (1,000 yards) inshore from

> the gently sloping beach which had been so safe for children it made

> Khao Lak an ideal place for a family holiday. But it stopped short of

> where the elephants stood. On Sunday, the elephants were back at work

> giving rides to the tourists on whom the area depends.

January 10, 2005

or at least the ability to predict the future, the ability to fly, the ability to do wondrous things. Such things are exceedingly rare in this age, and they are called siddhis.

However, few have it, and I do not think animlas have it. It is true, I think that the animals were very sensitive to the vibrations of the earth or something and thus retreated to a safer place.