China to use animals for predicting quakes

BEIJING: China has launched two earthquake monitoring stations, one at a park here and the other in Guangdong province, which will track abnormal behaviour of animals as a means of quake prediction.

Both the stations, one at the Beijing Wildlife Park in the city's outer Daxing district and the other at Guangzhou Zoo in Guangdong housing 10,000 & 5,000 birds and animals respectively, will use horses, donkeys, peacocks, snakes etc to predict quakes, according to media reports today.

"Seven observation points will be set up in the park, each headed by a senior zoo keeper who will record the animals' daily behaviour for the seismological bureau," the Park's Deputy Manager, Liu Xinchen, said.

According to seismological experts, abnormal behaviour can be observed in many wild animals before an impending earthquake.

Before and during the quake which jolted Wen'an County in Hebei Province last July and was clearly felt in Beijing and Tianjin, zoo workers at the Beijing Wildlife Park observed abnormal behaviour of parrots, Liu said.

"The park is located along a fracture in the earth's crust and is therefore an ideal place to monitor and detect earthquakes," director of the Daxing District Seismological Bureau at the Beijing Wildlife Park Deng Baoyin said.

Likewise, Guangzhou Zoo, which has already set up observation points, will monitor and record the daily behaviour of animals for the city's seismology office.