I live across the street from a limestone quarry that uses explosives on the rocks about once every two weeks or so on Wednesdays in the summer. You can hear the siren they set off before they blast and feel the blast in the ground at my house. (It rattles the windows a bit but doesn’t damage anything). I was wondering if there’s some way to study the reaction of the wildlife nearby to the blasts. Would they get used to it or not? It also made me curious as to how animals react to earthquakes in places like the west coast where they are relatively frequent. Does anyone have any knowledge about this subject?
I was on Nevis, West Indies in April 2018, when there was a 4.7 earthquake about 60 miles away, below the island of Barbuda. There was one big shake as if from an explosion, and then the land rocked back and forth for a while.
https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/susanhewitt/15536-earthquake-today
I looked out into the backyard carefully but I could not see any responses from birds etc. And people’s dogs did not bark either.
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There is some literature on the subject: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=animal+reaction+to+quarry+blasting&btnG=
I’m very curious about this subject too.
Anecdotally, I live near a fault line in California, USA. When I’ve been home for a small shake (generally <20mi, >2.5) my cats get very upset and prowl around the house afterwards. My female fluff will growl and parole, as if looking for an intruder.
In terms of animals getting used to consistent man made loud noises - I’m always impressed at the birds that nest in bell towers!
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