Animals appear to have escaped massive deaths
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 30, 2004
YALA NATIONAL PARK, Sri Lanka - Wildlife officials in Sri Lanka expressed surprise yesterday that they found no evidence of large-scale animal deaths from the tsunamis - indicating that animals may have sensed the wave coming and fled to higher ground.
An Associated Press photographer who flew over Sri Lanka's Yala National Park in an air force helicopter saw abundant wildlife, including elephants, buffalo, deer, and not a single animal corpse.
Floodwaters from Sunday's tsunami swept into the park, uprooting trees and toppling cars onto their roofs - one red car even ended up on top of a huge tree - but the animals apparently were not harmed and may have sought out high ground, said Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, whose Jetwing Eco Holidays ran a hotel in the park.
"This is very interesting. I am finding bodies of humans, but I have yet to see a dead animal," said Wijeyeratne, whose hotel in the park was destroyed.
"Maybe what we think is true, that animals have a sixth sense."
Yala, Sri Lanka's largest wildlife reserve, is home to 200 Asian elephants, crocodile, wild boar, water buffalo and gray langur monkeys. The park also has Asia's highest concentration of leopards. It covers 391 square miles, but only 56 square miles are open to tourists.
Informant: ItalysBadBoy
Animals invited to help forecast earthquakes
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/457996/
December 30, 2004
YALA NATIONAL PARK, Sri Lanka - Wildlife officials in Sri Lanka expressed surprise yesterday that they found no evidence of large-scale animal deaths from the tsunamis - indicating that animals may have sensed the wave coming and fled to higher ground.
An Associated Press photographer who flew over Sri Lanka's Yala National Park in an air force helicopter saw abundant wildlife, including elephants, buffalo, deer, and not a single animal corpse.
Floodwaters from Sunday's tsunami swept into the park, uprooting trees and toppling cars onto their roofs - one red car even ended up on top of a huge tree - but the animals apparently were not harmed and may have sought out high ground, said Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, whose Jetwing Eco Holidays ran a hotel in the park.
"This is very interesting. I am finding bodies of humans, but I have yet to see a dead animal," said Wijeyeratne, whose hotel in the park was destroyed.
"Maybe what we think is true, that animals have a sixth sense."
Yala, Sri Lanka's largest wildlife reserve, is home to 200 Asian elephants, crocodile, wild boar, water buffalo and gray langur monkeys. The park also has Asia's highest concentration of leopards. It covers 391 square miles, but only 56 square miles are open to tourists.
Informant: ItalysBadBoy
Animals invited to help forecast earthquakes
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/457996/
Starmail - 1. Jan, 23:04
