Chinese Scientists Think Snakes, Toads Might Have Known What Was Coming

HONG KONG -- Forty-eight hours before a devastating earthquake ripped through southwestern China, Jiang Weisong, director of the seismology bureau in the southern city of Nanning, worried that a tremor was imminent.

His reason? The cobras at nearby snake farms were behaving strangely.

"They'd stopped eating, and they were jumping in their cages," says Mr. Jiang, who videotaped the unusual behavior in the days leading up to the earthquake. "We believed there might be a big quake, but we weren't sure where it would be."

Two days later, one of the worst earthquakes in three decades pummeled China's southwestern Sichuan ...