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While millions of people prepare to watch a total solar eclipse across North America on Monday, homes, farms, zoos and wild animals in affected areas are worried about the moon's eclipse. I had missed the news. It blocks the sun and temporarily turns day into night.
How they will react to rapid and unexpected changes in light and temperature, lasting as long as four and a half minutes in some places, is anyone's guess.
Cows may also enter the barn for bedtime. Flamingos may flock together in fear. Galapagos giant tortoises move slowly and sometimes mate while frolicking.
Circadian rhythms can be severely disrupted, such as when a nocturnal animal mistakenly wakes up to start the day, only to find that the night is already over. And some animals probably don't care about dark skies, like a particularly lazy domestic cat or a warthog focused on foraging.
“Everyone wants to know how they will react,” said Robert Shoemaker, CEO and president of the Indianapolis Zoo, which was in darkness for nearly four minutes. It is one of several prominent zoos located along the Total Path, a gentle arc stretching from Texas to Maine, where researchers, animal keepers, volunteers, and the public… We plan to study animal responses to solar eclipses.
“Most animals, of course, will notice that something unusual is happening,” said Dr. Shoemaker, an expert in animal behavior and cognition.
Dr. M. Leanne Lilly, a veterinary behaviorist at the Ohio State College of Veterinary Medicine, said most animals become disoriented in the dark and are likely to start living nocturnal lives.
But Dr Lilly said humans' reactions to the eclipse, such as looking at the sky, expressing excitement and gathering in groups, could affect domestic animals such as dogs and cats.
“As such, our livestock can feel like things aren't as safe and predictable as they should be,” Dr. Lilly said, adding that pets are “domesticated to give us care.” Therefore, abnormal human behavior can confuse pets.” ”
“Maybe we're the problem,” she said with a laugh.
We can only get hints about animal behavior as to how they react to solar eclipses. This is because research on this topic is relatively sparse and often contradictory. One study from 1560 cites “the bird falling to the ground”. Other studies have reported that birds went to roost, remained silent, continued to sing, chirped, or flew straight home. The dog didn't bark or whine or bark or whine.
The 1932 study on solar eclipses was thought to be the first comprehensive study conducted on the subject that included observations from the general public, but there were “significant It was explained that “contradictory testimony was obtained”. The researchers concluded that some animals had the strongest reactions. The squirrels ran into the woods, and the cows and sheep headed for the barn.
The study found that the animals at the zoo showed little or no reaction, but Dr. Shoemaker said the animals at the Indianapolis Zoo “take a lot of things in stride,” so he didn't think they would react as unusually. He said he did not expect that.
““We think this will be a very casual and easy experience for the animals,” he said, adding that some people may experience “a little confusion” about what's going on. “I don't foresee it being a concern for them at all.”
Dr. Shoemaker is as curious as anyone to know what animals do, and in 2017, Adam Hartstone Rose, now a professor of biological sciences at North Carolina State University, discovered several I tried to get an answer. Before the total solar eclipse crossed the United States, he began a formal study of animals at Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens in Columbia, South Carolina, resulting in perhaps the most extensive study of animals during a solar eclipse since his 1932 effort. Extensive research was conducted.
As she will do next week at the Fort Worth Zoo, Dr. Hartstone-Rose gathered a group of researchers, animal caretakers and volunteers to observe animals before, during and after totality.
About three-quarters of the 17 species of mammals, birds, and reptiles her team studied showed behavioral responses to the eclipse, with many of these animals thinking the change in light meant it was time to prepare for bed. Ta. A smaller group of animals, including giraffes, baboons, gorillas, flamingos, parakeets (a type of parrot) and one Komodo dragon, exhibited unusual behavior that could be interpreted as anxiety.
According to the study, the baboons ran around the enclosure as they approached totalization, with one walking in circles for about 25 minutes. A male gorilla lunged at the glass. The flamingos clustered around the chicks, chirping loudly and pointing toward the sky, “the behavior you would expect if they thought there were aerial predators around,'' Dr. Hartstone-Rose said. said.
The parakeets became active and noisy just before the totality, congregating and flying to one side of the exhibit during the totality. A Komodo dragon rushed to its den, but the door was closed and it “ran around erratically” until daylight.
He said it was “very possible” that the behavior was not caused by the eclipse, but rather by large crowds or noise at the zoo, such as fireworks exploding in the distance.
But giraffe behavior in South Carolina that day was similar to giraffe behavior during solar eclipses elsewhere, including at the Nashville Zoo in 2017 and wildlife in Zambia during a solar eclipse in 2001. .
“For most of us, giraffes are like, 'Oh, it's dark, it's time to go to bed,'” said Allison Provost, curator of mammals at the Riverbanks Zoo and one of the people who observed giraffes in 2017. I expected it to happen,” he said. Their reaction was even more dramatic.
Giraffes at Riverbanks Zoo are typically found munching on lettuce, chewing their cud, walking around, and playing with nutritional toys. But when the sky darkened, they stopped eating and huddled behind the enclosure, with one individual roaming and swaying, according to the study. As the sun slowly returned, several of the animals began to gallop for several minutes, which was highly unusual. Giraffes at the Nashville Zoo and in Zambia also sprinted during the solar eclipse.
“They're creatures of habit,” Provost said. “So we just rocked their world.”
Elsewhere at the Riverbanks Zoo, Galapagos tortoises exhibited even more bizarre behavior just before totality, which the study described as a “new response.” Instead of moving slowly through their area as usual, they grouped together and two began mating. During totality, all four turtles moved faster than normal.
Dr. Hartstone-Rose is interested in seeing if this response is repeated in animals at the Fort Worth Zoo, where he will likely observe chimpanzee-like bonobos. He said bonobos often exhibit sexual behavior to relieve anxiety, and it would be interesting to see how bonobos react to unexpected darkness.
He is also asking the public to formally observe animals around them during the eclipse and submit their findings so they can be incorporated into research. These animals include pets, livestock, and wildlife, which are also known to change their behavior during eclipses.
Scientists have used different types of techniques to record wildlife responses to solar eclipses. During the 2017 solar eclipse, scientists used radar data from weather stations across the country to study how flying animals reacted as day turned to night.
As the sky darkened, the amount of biological activity in the atmosphere decreased, suggesting insects were landing and birds were starting to roost, the researchers found. In some locations, there were also short pulses of activity during the totality period when nocturnal creatures (which may have included bats, some insects, and birds that migrate at night) became active. Ta.
Still, the brief episode of darkness did not seem significant enough to fully convince the animals that night had come. “It's kind of a silent response,” said study author Andrew Farnsworth, a visiting scientist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Some animals, including many butterflies, are particularly sensitive to temperature. During the 2017 solar eclipse, Southwest Washington ecologist and butterfly expert Robert Michael Pyle spent hours carefully recording conditions in his garden and found that as temperatures cooled, The forest skipper, a species of butterfly, has disappeared. “When the temperature gets to 2 degrees, the butterflies go back to bed,” he says.
Although less studied, plants that require the sun for nutrition are also affected by solar eclipses. “As the sun moves away, photosynthesis slows down,” said Daniel Beverly, an ecophysiologist at Indiana University who documented slowdowns in sagebrush during the 2017 solar eclipse. The findings highlight the importance of circadian rhythms beyond the animal kingdom, he said.
And looking closely at what organisms do during an eclipse can yield new insights beyond the event itself. Solar eclipses are “a kind of natural experiment in manipulating light and temperature on a large scale,” said Candice Galen, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Missouri who discovered that bees became quiet during the 2017 total. Told.
In the end, Dr. Hartstone-Rose said, “No one knows what's going on inside a giraffe's head.” But his goal is to collect as much data as possible and try to figure it out.
He has one clear answer to the question he has been asked over and over again. “Should I wear safety glasses on my dog during a solar eclipse?”
“As a fashion statement, I'm all for it. So good luck,” he said. “But as a safety measure, no, that's not something they need to do. Animals don't see the sun.”
