Early Results of Three-Year Monitoring of Red Wood Ants' Behavioral Changes and Their Possible Correlation with Earthquake Events.
Short-term earthquake predictions with an advance warning of several hours or days are currently not possible due to both incomplete understanding of the complex tectonic processes and inadequate observations. Abnormal animal behaviors before earthquakes have been reported previously, but create problems in monitoring and reliability. The situation is different with red wood ants (RWA; Formica rufa-group (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)). They have stationary mounds on tectonically active, gas-bearing fault systems. These faults may be potential earthquake areas. For three years (2009-2012), two red wood ant mounds (Formica rufa-group), located at the seismically active Neuwied Basin (Eifel, Germany), have been monitored 24/7 by high-resolution cameras with both a color and an infrared sensor. Early results show that ants have a well-identifiable standard daily routine. Correlation with local seismic events suggests changes in the ants' behavior hours before the earthquake: the nocturnal rest phase and daily activity are suppressed, and standard daily routine does not resume until the next day. At present, an automated image evaluation routine is being applied to the more than 45,000 hours of video streams. Based on this automated approach, a statistical analysis of the ants' behavior will be carried out. In addition, other parameters (climate, geotectonic and biological), which may influence behavior, will be included in the analysis.
Department of Geology, Faculty of Biology, University Duisburg-Essen, 45141 Essen, Universitätsstr. 5, Germany. gabriele.berberich@uni-due.de.
Gabriele
G
Berberich
Am Plexer 7, 50374 Erftstadt, Germany. mb@berberichweb.com.
Martin
M
Berberich
Image Analysis Group, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, TU Dortmund, Otto-Hahn-Straße 4, 44227 Dortmund, Germany. arne.grumpe@tu-dortmund.de.
Arne
A
Grumpe
Image Analysis Group, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, TU Dortmund, Otto-Hahn-Straße 4, 44227 Dortmund, Germany. christian.woehler@tu-dortmund.de.
Christian
C
Wöhler
Department of Geology, Faculty of Biology, University Duisburg-Essen, 45141 Essen, Universitätsstr. 5, Germany. ulrich.schreiber@uni-due.de.
Ulrich
U
Schreiber
automated image evaluation routine; earthquakes; long-term in situ monitoring; red wood ants’ behavioral changes; statistical analyses; tectonically active faults