"They had been really lazy and just eaten a little bit of bamboo and, and all of a sudden they were sort of parading around their pen. And, looking back[1],  they must have sensed something was wrong."

 

Some scientists say animals can sense impending danger by detecting subtle or abrupt shifts in the environment. When the tsunami  hit in 2004, there were reports that elephants in Sri Lanka fled to higher ground well before the waves crashed into the coastline. National Geographic grantee and Panda researcher Marc Brody says some animal species, such as elephants who are known to hear low frequency sound waves, hear things sonically and may get an early warning.

 

Some animal species have a greater awareness than humans of vibrations in the ground. And they may sense smaller tremors prior to a big earthquake. A group of tourists was airlifted to safety from Wolong and taken to the provincial capital of Chengdu on Thursday morning.

 

"We were looking forward then to moving onto the larger  panda, where we were not sure whether that panda was going to come out of the enclosure or whether that someone was going into  an  enclosure just to be with that panda. So we were waiting for that to happen and then suddenly we had this horrendous noise which is just what you can't describe out what it’s like, it’s just a huge huge noise and the land shaking underneath, you[2]… "

 

Twelve Americans, part of a World Wildlife Fund-sponsored tour of China, were visiting the Panda Reserve in Wolong when the earthquake struck.

 

"Certainly it was a  surreal  experience to be standing there going through a, whatever was  7.9 Richter earthquake surrounded by 25 pandas all sort of[3] reacting to that as well. "

 

Wolong’s 86 pandas were reported safe on Tuesday. The 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit on Monday with the epicenter near Wolong Reserve. Rescuers are still making their way to the more remote areas affected. So far the death toll stands at almost 20,000 and is expected to climb higher as rescue efforts progress.