KATAK PURU DAPAT MERAMAL GEMPA BUMI

Katak dikaitkan dengan ahli politik yang melompat parti. Itu di Malaysia. Namun di Eropah, saintis berusaha mengaitkan tingkah-laku katak dengan ancaman gempa bumi.

Penyelidikan ahli biologi Open University, London, Rachel Grant, terhadap tingkah-laku katak puru, Bufo bufo, mendapati haiwan berkenaan meninggalkan habitatnya menjelang gempa bumi. Peritiwa ini berlaku di Tasik San Ruffino, 75 kilometer dari bandar L'Aquilla, Itali, pusat gempa bumi bermagnitud 6.3 yang melanda negara itu pada 6 April 2009.

Lima hari sebelum gempa bumi meranapkan L'Aquilla, Rachel Grant mendapati semua katak puru yang sedang dikajinya telah meninggalkan Tasik Ruffino. Walhal bertahun-tahun sebelum itu, tatkala bulan mengambang penuh, katak puru akan berkumpul untuk mengawan di tasik berkenaan.

Katak puru boleh meramal gempa bumi? 'Can Toads Predict Earthquake?' ialah rencana yang tersiar dalam Time.com pada 1 April 2010. Antara catatan dalam rencana tersebut:

'It was one of the strokes of luck from which science is made. The seismic shift continued to set off aftershocks almost every day, but Grant stayed to count her toads. When a full moon rose three days after the quake, a few toads risked a return. But then their numbers dropped again, remaining low until two days after the last major aftershock — a full 10 days after the first tremor.

"It's never been reported to have happened before," says Grant. "Once they're breeding, then they're breeding. That's it."

It's not clear what caused the toads to scatter. Grant, whose research was published this week in the Journal of Zoology, says the toads could have reacted to changes in the earth's magnetic field, alterations in the ionosphere or spikes in the amount of radon gas in the water.

"Toads are very sensitive to their environment," she says. Now that at least one potential connection has been drawn between toads and earthquakes, she says, scientists could look for similar reactions in other toad populations that live in seismic areas and are being monitored by conservationists. She suggests exploring how toads respond to some of the changes she believes could have triggered their mass exodus.

The question now, she says, is whether seismologist can do anything with her research to try to predict the next big one.

"A lot of people are asking, 'Can we use them as a kind of monitoring tool, keep one at home and watch to see if they run away?' " says Grant.

"That's obviously not going to work." But she's hoping something might.'

Di Malaysia, ahli politik yang digelar katak juga boleh dibiarkan hidup di Parlimen. Mana tahu, mereka berkebolehan mempamerkan tingkah-laku yang menjadi petunjuk kepada tsunami politik yang lebih besar yang akan melanda negara menjelang pilihan raya yang akan datang.

[Nota: Radon tergolong sebagai gas nadir dan merupakan bahan radioaktif yang tidak berbau, tidak berwarna dan tidak berasa. Sifat keradioaktifannya menyebabkan gas radon berupaya memudharatkan kesihatan manusia dan haiwan. Kehadirannya dalam udara boleh menyebabkan barah paru-paru.]