Rooies wrote:
I am no fundi, but the following have been recorded about animals' ability to predict possible disaster. During WW2, 2 Germans fled into the Namib desert to prevent them from being arrested and put in an internment camp. They found a place in the Kuiseb canyon to stay. One day they were sitting next to a pool in the river bed, when suddenly the frogs started to scramble out of the water and move to higher ground. It was very strange to them, but an hour or so later, a wall of water came gushing through the canyon an swept everything in its path away. Apparently, there was a cloud burst many kilometres upstream. Somehow the frogs could detect that problems were on their way and therefor escaped the danger. The Afrikaans name of the book is "Vlug in die Namib" There is an English version, but I keep on forgetting it.
According to Parks officials, no animals were killed by the 2000 floods.
As far as the crocs are concerned, it was found that toxins from outside the park get washed down by the floods, and when the waters reaches the Massingir dam, the flow stops and the toxins then sink down to the bottom of the dam. Fish then swims through a curtain of toxins, and when the crocs eat the fish, they die.
Thanks Rooies, I am guessing the animals can sense when there was a change in the atmospheric conditions, and that is possibly how they would know if there is a flood coming. I do wonder that if there was no storm a few kilometers away, but humans open up dam flood gates, will the animals have warning of the oncoming waters?
I will dispute the claim that no animals were killed during the floods...what were the lions and leopards and hyena's eating at that time....

, just kidding, I would love to know how they know that. Surely there must have been a few animals caught up in the rushing waters, just like there are always animals caught in a fire?