Thursday, May 16, 2024
While a total solar eclipse is an exciting experience for humans, many scientists and members of the public are preparing to capture how animals will also react to the rare event.
During previous eclipses, some viewers have reported that unusual animal and insect behavior occurs once the moon passes over the sun, including claims that crickets begin to chirp, bees return to their hives, and birds fall silent. Although there is only a handful of research on the topic, a study published in the journal Animals found that approximately 75% of observed species at a zoo in South Carolina exhibited surprising behaviors during the Great American Eclipse in 2017.
Professor Adam Hartstone-Rose, a professor at North Carolina State University who led the study, said his team observed that many animals, including a troop of gorillas, started to engage in their nighttime routines.
“As totality set in, they started going toward their nighttime enclosure where they get their meal before they go to bed,” Hartstone-Rose said. As daylight resumed, he adds that the gorillas came back out of their enclosure.
Other animals had strange reactions to the eclipse, such as Siamang gibbons, a species of ape, that made unusual calls to each other and Galapagos tortoises that started breeding. Giraffes also galloped in what seemed like “pacing behavior” caused by stress or anxiety.
In April, Hartstone-Rose and his team will travel to the Fort Worth Zoo to learn if their research is consistent with their findings in 2017. For this study, they are enlisting help from the public by asking participants to observe animals not only at their local zoos, but also wildlife out in nature, farm animals, and pets. Known as the Solar Eclipse Safari project, willing participants can submit their observations via phone, tablet, or data collection sheets located on the project’s website.
“We are also really interested in data that’s collected not just on the path of totality, but also in any place in North America, because one of the questions that we have is – we’re building an idea that some animals have a reaction to an eclipse,” Hartstone-Rose said. “We’re building an idea of how different animals react to an eclipse, but we’re hoping to gather enough data to be able to say what amount of eclipse is necessary to cause a behavioral change.”
Other citizen science projects include NASA’s Eclipse Soundscapes, which aims to collect sounds and sensory observations from the public to find how an eclipse might affect various ecosystems.
“Eclipses have always presented scientists with unique opportunities to learn about our solar system,” MaryKay Severino, co-lead of the Eclipse Soundscapes Project, said in a press release. “The Eclipse Soundscapes Project is not only an opportunity for NASA to gather a large amount of scientific data, it’s an opportunity for our participants to learn about the eclipse in a multi-sensory manner.”
Both projects stem from a study in the 1930s that also used public observations to reveal how an eclipse might affect wildlife.
With areas throughout Central and North Texas expected to experience several minutes of totality, many regional wildlife reserves and zoos plan to do their own observations on how animals in their parks will respond to the total eclipse.
Avery Elander, a spokesperson for the Fort Worth Zoo, said that the zoo is open to the public on April 8. Visitors are also invited to submit their observations to Hartstone-Rose’s research team.
“We expect that if changes in behavior are observed, they will likely be animals behaving like they typically would at dawn or dusk such as nest building, change in vocalizations, increased activity/feeding, or moving toward their overnight barns,” Elander said.
Director of the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, Brendan Wiley, said they plan to closely watch the behavior of the elephants and orangutans.
“Both of those species are incredibly intelligent and perceptive, so we are naturally curious to see how they react,” Wiley said.
Wiley adds that the zoo has a group of 200-300 wild black vultures that visit the facility during the day but depart once evening approaches.
“(We’re) curious to see if they make an early departure,” he said.
Jake Mayhew, the ranch manager for Buena Vista Wildlife Safari in Evant, said they intend to conduct some visual observations of their animals.
“Most animals are fairly based on how the sun comes up – sun phases and moon phases and things like that because that’s how they feed,” Mayhew said. “And they’re not used to sudden darkness, and that alarms them, in my opinion, is what I think happens.”
Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose hopes to participate in the Eclipse Soundscapes Project by recording animal sounds with an audio device during the eclipse.
“The goal would be to help contribute to the NASA (Soundscape) project,” said Warren Lewis, Chief Marketing Officer for Fossil Rim. “We would place it in our wolf area to see how our wolves react to the eclipse.”
For those interested in helping scientists study animal behavior or how nature responds during the total solar eclipse, visit Solar Eclipse Safari at scistarter.org/solar-eclipse-safari-resources or the Eclipse Soundscapes Project at eclipsesoundscapes.org.
