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This. My wife was in her backyard with her dad during the Loma Prieta quake, and a few minutes before the quake they saw a momma possum with her babies climb do

This. My wife was in her backyard with her dad during the Loma Prieta quake, and a few minutes before the quake they saw a momma possum with her babies climb down the side of the house and walk off into the bushes. It could be a coincidence, but reports of animals acting oddly before quakes aren't uncommon, and we've recently found a plausible biological basis for how birds sense magnetic fields, so some animal or animals may be able to detect signs that an earthquake is more likely to occur.

perl4ever 7y ago
" they saw a momma possum with her babies climb down the side of the house and walk off into the bushes" I don't understand. What would a possum do instead if there was no earthquake? Stay on the house? Walk out into traffic on a highway?
- dragonwriter 7y ago
  > What would a possum do instead if there was no earthquake? Stay on the house? During daytime? Yes, mostly, IIRC, they are nocturnal and come down during the day mostly when in food distress or disturbed. But, of course, if you saw a possum come down (perhaps from hunger, or because a crow dropped a husk on it and disturbes it, or whatever) without a near-following earthquake, you might say “Hmmm, odd”, but it wouldn't be a major notable event. But two uncommon events near in time get linked mentally, even if there is no relationship.