Portugal gets a few minor earthquakes or tremors every year, and statistics show a total of 105 earthquakes with a magnitude of four or above have struck within 300 km of Portugal in the past 10 years. This comes down to a mere average of 10 earthquakes per year.

Well, I reckon my dogs have sensed the last few that have been this month, March 2025. Three times they have woken us up in the middle of the night, and want to go outside to run around barking, unusual behaviour for them, who are usually quite happy to curl up and sleep until daybreak. On each occasion, we have laughingly grumbled that there must have been an earthquake somewhere nearby, and blow me down, if that wasn’t true. Coincidence or what?

According to Mr Google

Scientists have not consistently recorded animals acting strangely or leaving the area days before an earthquake. While there is anecdotal evidence of this occurring—dating all the way back to 373 BC - it's not enough to prove that animals have this ability, but other scientists think they could be sensing foreshocks (smaller earthquakes that occur before the larger earthquake) or acoustic waves generated by the movement of underground rocks.

Acute hearing

Because dogs have such an acute sense of hearing, they can hear distant thunder way before a human ear catches a rumble. They also sense barometric changes in the air pressure and smells in the atmosphere (ozone) better than we do, so they may sense an oncoming storm before we get wind of it. Ever watch your dog get a bit twitchy before a storm hits?

Do they have a sixth sense?

Animals may or may not – though some say their dog or cat has the sixth sense to know you are on the way home from work, say, and start getting excited, but it’s more likely a routine they are used to, and sense the timing is right for you to appear. Maybe you feed them as soon as you get in the door, so their hunger signs could be interpreted as foreknowledge.

If you have a pet, you might notice that there are certain areas or spots they might be afraid of, or there's a place that they act weird around. There could be many reasons they might avoid a spot, perhaps they were in that area and heard something frightening (a car backfiring or perhaps fireworks, etc) and now associate it with that spot – so, no, it’s not a haunted spot! (Our two newbie dogs give our sun umbrella the evil eye as it wobbles in the wind - they also got ‘chased’ by it one day when they were leashed together and they both took off either side of it and gave them a fright as they pulled it a good metre or so).

Animals’ seemingly special powers are more likely simply that they have heightened versions of all of their senses. Dogs in particular can pick up on minor changes in the environment, small, different sounds perhaps from the neighbourhood, and learn to associate those with certain actions, which could lead to the belief that they can sense things before they happen, or at least before humans do.

Cats are no better

They do their share of weird behaviour too. Why do they sometimes stare at the same spot on the ceiling perhaps for no reason? Or seems frightened and then run away? Or makes that funny grimace with the lip curling? (Well, that has a real name, the flehmen response, and they are actually picking up pheromones from the air).

All animals are capable of getting the ‘zoomies’ where they engage in frenetic running about in random directions. Some may call it the witching hour, others call it the ‘crazies,’ and scientists refer to it as frenetic random activity periods (FRAPs). This sudden burst of hyperactivity may just be they are having fun and are releasing some pent-up energy. It is actually common among many mammals, including horses, rabbits, ferrets, and even elephants (God forbid you are in the way of that one!).

Author

Marilyn writes regularly for The Portugal News, and has lived in the Algarve for some years. A dog-lover, she has lived in Ireland, UK, Bermuda and the Isle of Man. 

Marilyn Sheridan