Animals and Weather
Dear Tom,
How can animals detect weather before something happens?
Paul See, Schaumburg
Dear Paul,
Your question is representative of many that we receive concerning the ability of
animals to predict the weather. But contrary to popular belief, there is no documented
evidence that animals have that ability. Authorities from a range of disciplines agree
that animal behavior, even when it is uncharacteristic, is a response to past or current
weather, or the result of instinctive imperatives and is not based on predictive ability.
That goes for plants, too. Such conditions as an exceptionally great (or poor)
production of seeds, as with oak trees and acorns, or premature leaf coloring in the
autumn invariably result from past weather conditions or other environmental factors
and not from any predictive ability that the organism might possess.