How many animals were destroyed in the Boxing Day tsunami?

Answer 1

Most definitely. Thousands of dogs, cats, insects, rats, mice etc probably got swept away and drowned. However, it is known that wild animals (and pets) use their instincts to try and get away from the wave.

Answer 2

Yes. A tsunami is a "tidal wave" of water caused by an undersea earthquake or landslide. It's not really a "tide", but it doesn't look like a wave; it's a surge of water that comes in more quickly than tide, but without breaking like waves, so "tidal wave" is not entirely inaccurate in describing what happens.

Animals, people, boats, anything that isn't bolted down (and a lot of stuff that IS bolted down) can be picked up and swept inland by the rising surge. Depending on the magnitude of the earthquake or the volume of the landslide, the surge of water can rise ten, twenty, thirty feet or more above the normal sea level, and carried inland.

As the water peaks, it begins to rush back into the oceans, and will carry anything that floats - including people, boats, animals, cars, and garbage of every description - back out to sea. Animals and people can be left high in a tree, if they get caught in the branches as the water recedes.

Curiously, BEFORE the water flows over the beach, the ocean often recedes far from the beach, so that the water rapidly flowing out to sea is sometimes your best and earliest warning that a tsunami is approaching the shore. So if you see the water recede further away than it normally does, GET TO HIGHER GROUND AND WARN EVERYBODY THAT YOU SEE.