Hi All,
There has been much talk of strange animal behavior before a quake. My youngest daughter did a six month test by observing our three cats, one dog, and six horses along with a neighbors wild birds. She even kept a log of lost cats and dogs from the paper. She also noted any unusual weather conditions. Her predictions were more that a quake would occure in a 48 hour period. No location was pinpointed. She was right about 6 times in 10.
I believe Jim Berkland bases many of his predictions on lost dogs and cats. My daughter did not find many scientific studies on the subject, but found that China had spotters around the country who logged behavior and made warnings. Some where right on and other quakes gave no warning. She did find a number of newspaper reports some before in areas which had large quakes.
My wife and I raised horses and if they were spooked, or would not eat, almost always there was a quake. My daughters conclusion was that so many variables entered into the mix that that making predictions was very difficult. Her rate of success was about 50/50.
Knowing your animals becomes a key variable as fireworks, sudden weather chance, noises we can't hear all manifest themselves in their behavior. One thing that I see is that the stronger the quake and the closer the animals are to the epicenter, the more dramatic their behavior is. I have been through three good quakes in the San Fernando Valley and each has its own set of animal behavior stores from a number of people. Pinpointing a time and location are much more difficult unless you have a number of people and can plot information on a map. The 1994 Northridge Quake generated many stories in the entire SFValley.
Pehaps this is enough to launch a study on this site with some guide lines and a reporting form.
Bob in Woodland Hills