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During the Great American Eclipse of 2017, zoo animals behaving strangely surprised researchers: the giraffes gathered and started galloping, the Galápagos tortoises started mating, and the gorillas started getting ready for bed.
This strange behavior was just a few of the many anomalies that scientists stationed at the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in Columbia, South Carolina, observed during the historic solar event in the United States, according to a March 2020 report.
“Giraffes are quite delicate, they don’t run much. If they flee, it’s because they’re running from a predator or something like that,” said lead study author Dr. Adam Hartstone-Rose, professor of biological sciences at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.
“It was pretty amazing and mind-blowing,” he said. Zookeepers at the Nashville Zoo in Grassmere also documented giraffes galloping during the brief moments in 2017 when the sky darkened in the middle of the day.
With the upcoming solar eclipse on April 8, the researchers plan to build on their previous research at another zoo within the path of totality. That’s the part of Mexico, the US and Canada through which the moon’s shadow will pass, blocking the sun from view at geographic points along the way for three or four minutes at a time.
And you can help scientists unravel the mysteries of this unusual behavior. While many people prepare to look skyward for the dazzling event, others may want to take a moment to look at the critters in their own backyard, says Hartstone-Rose, one of the principal investigators of Solar Eclipse Safari, a citizen project aimed at collecting observations from people viewing the eclipse across the entire path.
Participate in unraveling animal secrets
Hartstone-Rose plans to take a team of graduate student researchers to the Fort Worth Zoo in Texas, where the solar eclipse will occur on April 8 from approximately 12:22 p.m. to 3:01 p.m. CT, with the moment of totality nearly 2 ½ minutes away at 1:40 p.m. CT, according to NASA. The researchers will study certain animals to determine whether they repeat the same strange behavior. But citizens can also help with their own research.
And ordinary people don’t just look at a zoo. The citizen project requires observations from all kinds of environments, including cities with pigeons and squirrels, mountain ecosystems with forest critters, farms with livestock, and more.
“Anything could be going on. We hope we can even get kids to look at their dogs in their backyard and see if their dogs are behaving interestingly during the eclipse,” Hartstone-Rose said.
The path of totality extends across more than a dozen U.S. states, but even someone not directly on the path will most likely experience some percentage of the sun being covered by the moon. Hartstone-Rose is interested in reports from across North America to determine whether some animals only respond to a certain percentage of solar coverage, he said.
“It’s a project that anyone anywhere on the path of totality, or even off the path of totality, could do using our protocols and data can contribute to our research, and help us understand more broadly how animals behave during the solar eclipse,” he added. .
But that’s not the only way citizen scientists can get involved. You can also participate in NASA’s Eclipse Soundscapes Project. The space agency will collect observations from the public about animal behavior and human responses to the solar eclipse through written multisensory reports – such as what the observer saw, heard or felt – and audio recordings of the environment during the solar event.
Total solar eclipses are rare events that provide scientists with rare opportunities to collect data on behavioral responses to the phenomenon, says Kelsey Perrett, communications coordinator for the Eclipse Soundscapes Project. The next total solar eclipse visible in the contiguous United States won’t occur until August 2044.
Why do animals react to the solar eclipse?
Reports of animals behaving strangely during a solar eclipse date back hundreds of years, according to NASA, but the causes and consequences of the unusual behavior are not yet fully understood.
The researchers studied 17 species during the 2017 event and found behavioral responses to the solar eclipse in about 75% of the zoo animals observed, with the majority exhibiting evening activities or exhibiting behavior indicative of anxiety.
Hartstone-Rose believes there are two possible reasons for the animals’ reactions to the eclipse. First, the animals responded to the decline in natural light and temperature as the sun disappeared behind the moon. Second, the animals responded to the excitement and commotion of the crowds of zoo visitors as the eclipse occurred.
The moon’s interference with daylight caused by a total solar eclipse likely affects animals because of the so-called circadian rhythm, the internal biological 24-hour clock that tells a person or animal how to respond to the amount of light they receive, said Dr. . Bryan Pijanowski, professor of forestry and natural resources and director of the Center for Global Soundscapes at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He was not involved in the March 2020 investigation.
“Most animals respond to (the dimming of the light by the eclipse) in a way that says, ‘Okay, it’s time to sit down and rest and go to sleep.’ … And then there are the nocturnal animals that suddenly say, ‘Oh, it’s time for me to wake up and get active,’” he added.
A better understanding of how animals respond to the solar eclipse could inspire further research into how animals, especially insects, are affected by light pollution, said Pijanowski, who is also on the Soundscapes Project’s scientific advisory board.
How have animals reacted during previous eclipse events?
The most consolidated research dates from nearly 100 years ago, when a team of scientists led by entomologist William M. Wheeler collected nearly 500 observations from the public. For example, people told researchers that during the totality of the August 1932 solar eclipse, they saw crickets chirping as if it were night and bees trying to return to their hives. The study, published in March 1935, also included observations of mammals, birds and cold-blooded vertebrates.
Researchers have made additional observations over the years of specific animals’ responses during solar eclipses, including studies of captive baboons that improved grooming behavior, brown pelicans that roosted, colonial orb weaver spiders that took down their webs, and certain amphibians that became more vocal .
Hartstone-Rose plans to have researchers stationed near the giraffe enclosure in April to see if the galloping behavior reoccurs, and hopes people stationed at other zoos will do the same.
Some of the other animals the research team will scrutinize include reptiles – especially turtles, to see if the normally slow-moving giants will become more active – as well as primates, such as bonobos, which tend to have sex when they being under stress. Hartstone-Rose said.
Watching the solar eclipse in a zoo
The researchers will have to be aware of the limitations of public participation that will affect the findings when it comes to observing animal behavior at the Fort Worth Zoo this year, Hartstone-Rose said. But he hopes there will be many more observations from people away from the crowds.
“It’s the nature of the beast. Eclipses are super exciting. We don’t want to do anything that will diminish people’s excitement during the eclipse,” he said.
The zookeepers will also contribute to the data by observing animals within their areas of expertise, said John Griffioen, assistant director of animal programs and conservation at the Fort Worth Zoo.
The zoo’s very noisy animals that often communicate with each other, such as the elephants, flamingos and parrots, will be of particular interest, Griffioen said, to determine whether the whole thing makes the animals quieter or louder.
In addition to the Fort Worth Zoo, several zoos along the path of totality have announced events open to the public for eclipse viewing, including the Buffalo Zoo in New York, the Little Rock Zoo in Arkansas, the Toledo Zoo in Ohio and the Indianapolis Zoo. .
How you can help NASA with research
The Eclipse Soundscapes Project began last October with the annular solar eclipse, also known as the “ring of fire.” More than 800 people participated in the project, Perrett said. The space agency expects much larger numbers for the 2024 total solar eclipse — nearly 2,500 people have already signed up, she added.
Wheeler’s 1935 citizen study inspired the project, the website said. The space agency researchers are particularly interested in studying crickets and other vocal nocturnal insects to find out whether they will start chirping as the moon envelops the sun, Perrett said.
The NASA project is open to all volunteer participants, including those who are blind or visually impaired, the news release said. Additionally, it’s not necessary to have an animal in view to make good observations, because listening is also an important sense to use during the eclipse, Pijanowski said.
“If we get just a handful of people to experience the eclipse in a new way, we’ll consider it a success,” Perrett said in an email. “When it comes to data, the more the better. The more people participate, the better we can answer our questions about the impact of solar eclipses on life on Earth.”
The Solar Eclipse Safari and Eclipse Soundscapes Project will record the public’s observations through forms found on their respective websites. But if you just want to experience the “once in a lifetime” solar event for yourself, that’s fine too, Hartstone-Rose said.
“(During a total solar eclipse) you have so many different ways that the light is scattered, so there are these beautiful colors of orange, purple and green. … The wind speed drops and becomes very, very calm. And so everything happens within a very short period of time, all at the same time,” Pijanowski said. “It’s an amazing human sensory experience to be in the middle of a total solar eclipse.”
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