Hurricane Helene: A disturbing scene of bears behaving strangely the day before the disaster… do animals have a sixth sense ?

Did Bears Anticipate Hurricane Helene Coming to the United States ? Illustration bear Pixabay/Maxppp

Did the animals sense that a disaster was about to happen ? This is the question raised by videos posted on social networks, showing bears climbing unusually high into trees.

Do animals have a sort of sixth sense that helps them anticipate certain climatic events ? The question has been raised again, as Hurricane Helene in the United States has now claimed more than 200 victims. A video posted on social media, for example, shows black bears climbing very high into trees the day before the disaster.

While this species regularly climbs trees, it is rather rare to observe them so high, indicates Futura Science, which questions a possible link with the arrival of the hurricane devastating.

“Most animals have much more developed senses than humans, allowing them to detect subtle changes in sound, smell or sight that could signal imminent danger”, says Alma Gentil in her tweet, who shares the video of these bears.

Other astonishing cases

And she is clearly right, since Futura explains that while we cannot a priori speak of a “sixth sense”, studies tend to prove that animals use their senses more, and that these are more developed, allowing them for example to hear infrasound.

Cats, which deserted Fréjus shortly before the collapse of the Malpasset dam in December 1959, which caused more than 400 deaths, recalls Le Point, elephants in Thailand, which managed to break their chains and escape to reach higher ground shortly before the earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean which caused 200,000 victims, according to Ça m’intéresse… There are many disturbing examples of behavior that suggest that animals had anticipated.

Variations in atmospheric pressure

Observing the movements of animals is of interest to scientists, who have been observing them from the International Space Station since 2019. “Seabird tracking data, for example, has shown that they change their trajectory in anticipation of approaching typhoons”, says the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Futura Science also points out that when a hurricane approaches, atmospheric pressure drops very low and that some animals are able to detect sudden changes in pressure. These variations can be perceived as a danger, and therefore influence certain behaviors. This will not tell us, however, whether the black bears filmed before the arrival of Hurricane Helene had sensed that a catastrophe was approaching.