Sensing tsunamis

With speculation about the ability of animals to have sensed the incoming tsunami (remarkably few corpses of large mammals appear to have been found), there's a interesting story about the Jawara tribe surviving the tsunami on India's isolated Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Government officials and anthropologists have speculated ancient knowledge of the movement of wind, sea and birds may have saved the indigenous tribes from the tsunami that killed 901 people and left 5,914 missing on the islands. But Ashu and his companions refused to talk about how they avoided the devastating waves.

The tribe is very wary of strangers and one had a message to tourists which has an even greater resonance as aid reaches the area:

He said tourists sometimes throw packages of cookies from buses, adding: “We don't like when tourists throw things at us. They should give it to our hands.”

And the tribe's usial diet?

When asked what they typically eat, Ashu said pork and fish killed with arrows. “And we like honey.”

See update.