Can animals predict natural disasters? Can they sense ghosts? What do they know that we don't? Here are 6 animals that can sense things beyond your imagination!
Have you ever just known things without… really knowing them?
Let's rephrase: Have you ever felt an awareness of something without having seen, heard, smelt, touched or tasted it?
Animals have this kind of experience all the time.
Many of them are gifted with extra sensory abilities through which they perceive and navigate the world. A gut feeling or a ‘sixth sense’, if you will. Think red ants sensing earthquakes or sea turtles remembering the exact location of their birth — only, the list is much longer and more exciting than that!
Our sixth sense is telling us you want to know more, so let’s meet some of nature’s psychics!
Pigeons
As the story goes — before GPS, there were (and are) pigeons! These birds have a highly functional sense of distance and spatial orientation. They can pinpoint where they are and determine the direction and length of their next flight by assessing the Earth’s magnetic field. This ability is ‘magnetoreception’, and other migratory birds have it too!
Sharks
Their sixth sense serves as an extra arrow in the quiver while on the hunt! ‘Electroreception’ allows them to get a sense of the Earth’s electric field on the ocean floor below them. Additionally, with salt water being a great conductor of electricity, this ability is greatly heightened. This means that they can cast a wide net of electroreceptors and detect their prey if it twitches even a muscle. The moment they sense a disturbance in the force, they’re on the move.
Bats
Like Pigeons, bats are one of those animals with the sixth sense of detecting geomagnetic fields to direct them during migration. But that’s not all! A recent discovery reveals that bats have a sense named “polarization vision” which helps them sense the sun, its rays, and its patterns even after it has set!
Spiders
We can all agree that spiders are pretty great web weavers, but their detective skills are no less! Their sixth sense allows them to determine factors like the weight, size, and possibly even identity of any insect that gets caught in their web. Not so bad for a tiny spider, huh?
Sea Turtles
If there’s one thing sea turtles do, it’s that they always find their way back home. Female sea turtles seem to have an intuitive sense of their birthplace even after being separated from it! They always return to the beach where they first hatched when it’s time to migrate.
Red Wood Ants
A day off is rare for these workaholic ants, so you know something is terribly wrong when they stop their work. Red wood ants can predict earthquakes a day in advance, and on such an occasion, they’re likely to drop all work and clear out of the colony before disaster hits. Petition to let them be little seismologists!
It’s fascinating how nature helps its animals in the most special ways, isn’t it? The next time you have an intuitive moment, remember that these 6 animals are literal proof that having a sixth sense is a real and valid hypothesis. Trust the universe — it’s got your back!