Animals in a northeast China zoo are now there not only for people to visit but also for monitoring possible earthquakes.

The Anshan Zoo, named after the city where it is located, in Liaoning Province, was brought into the city's seismological macro-observation network this week.

"About one week before an earthquake happens, some of the animals' behaviour becomes obviously abnormal," said Xu Jing, deputy chief engineer of the city's seismological bureau. And the more abnormal the animals act, the stronger the earthquake will probably be.

The zoo keepers therefore were given a new mission besides taking care of the animals: reporting to the seismological bureau whenever they find the animals under their care acting strangely.

Together with micro-monitoring result done with instruments, the local seismological administration believes its earthquake forecasting will become more accurate in time.

It is believed that more than 100 species of animals can "predict" earthquakes, including horses, donkeys, pigs, cattle, dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, geese, rats, snakes and fish. Some are restless, some are dazed and some change their habits.

China, located between the circum-Pacific seismic belt and the belt ranging from the Mediterranean to the Himalayas, experiences the greatest number of earthquakes in the world.

Liaoning Province has reported three earthquakes measuring above 5.0 on the Richter scale since 1970. It has succeeded in forecasting one earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale which hit Yingkou and Haicheng, two densely-populated places in southern part of the province, on February 4, 1975. More than 2,000 people died in that tremor.

(China Daily August 4, 2004)