Studying Animal Behavior During Eclipses
The Mystery of Animal Behavior During a Total Solar Eclipse
With the latest research efforts, scientists are finally starting to decode how animals experience a total solar eclipse.
While humans often marvel at the celestial beauty of a solar eclipse, Adam Hartstone-Rose, a biologist at North Carolina State University, had a different focus during the 2017 eclipse. He was fascinated by the reactions of a seemingly uninterested group – 43 Rainbow and Coconut Lorikeets at the Riverbanks Zoo in South Carolina. The unexpected midday darkness triggered the birds' typical nighttime routine, a condensed flurry of activity that seemed to assume the day had come to an abrupt close.
Humans have long noticed the strange ways animals seem to react to the sudden twilight of a total eclipse. Rebecca Johnson, from the California Academy of Sciences, notes that these stories often mention unusual shifts in animal sounds – perhaps birds quieting down while insects become more vocal.
However, gathering reliable data on these observations has always been a challenge. Individual locations don't experience total eclipses often enough for specialized research – sometimes waiting centuries between events.
Animal Behavior to Solar Eclipses: Unraveling the Mystery Behind Diverse Reactions
Fortunately, recent times have offered new opportunities. Crowdsourcing initiatives and the widespread path of the 2017 eclipse across the US dramatically increased the ability to study how animals behave during totality (when the sun completely disappears behind the moon).
Hartstone-Rose's work with the lorikeets was just one part of a zoo-based study observing 15 different species. His team broadly categorized the animal reactions into three types. Some, like the lorikeets, seemed to interpret the eclipse as nightfall, starting their evening routines. Others displayed behaviors that the researchers considered signs of anxiety, like the giraffes who began restlessly running around their enclosure. Yet, there were also those like the stoic grizzly bears, seemingly oblivious to the celestial drama overhead.
A few animals defied easy categorization. Intriguingly, right at the peak of the eclipse, two Galápagos tortoises began mating. Afterward, all the tortoises in the enclosure were observed staring upwards towards the sky.
These initial studies haven't yet revealed any obvious patterns explaining why different animals react as they do. Researchers like Hartstone-Rose couldn't easily identify connections based on predator/prey relationships or broad classifications like mammals vs. birds. He does note, however, that their study had limited opportunities to observe nocturnal animals, which might have a different baseline response.
Unraveling the Eclipse Puzzle
Johnson worked on her own project during the 2017 eclipse, encouraging the public to share their observations of animal behavior via the iNaturalist app. The project received thousands of reports on various species, both during totality and the partial eclipse stages. Much of the data focused on easily observed creatures like pets, backyard birds, and insects like honeybees. Even with the expanded dataset, Johnson's team didn't find any easily identifiable trends linking specific behaviors to types of animals.
One reason for the lack of clear patterns might lie with pets and domesticated animals. The presence of artificial light in our homes may mean housecats and dogs don't react strongly to an eclipse-induced dimming of the sun.
With the encouraging results from 2017, both Johnson and Hartstone-Rose have organized even more ambitious plans for the next major total solar eclipse cutting across Mexico, the US, and Canada on April 8th, 2024. Hartstone-Rose will be heading to the Fort Worth Zoo in Texas, focusing on both new species and those he previously observed. Trained zoo staff will help with the monitoring, and they're also inviting visitors to share what they notice about animal behavior. Johnson's team is again calling for submissions to the iNaturalist app, hoping for an even larger data pool this time around.
Image Credit - Live Science
Birds and the 2024 Eclipse: Unraveling the Impact on Migration and Daily Rhythms During a Critical Season
Other researchers are also getting involved in animal eclipse studies. Kimberly Rosvall, an animal behavior scientist at Indiana University Bloomington, will be observing the 2024 event in a location directly within the path of totality. For her, the timing of the eclipse makes it a particularly intriguing case study for birds. April is a crucial month in the migration cycle. Birds use the night hours to navigate towards their breeding grounds and the daytime hours to search for suitable territories and mates.
Rosvall is keen to understand not only how the birds react to the unexpected darkness but what they do afterward. "Do they restart their 'day,' or does their internal clock tell them it's still pre-dawn?" she wonders. "It has big implications for a time in their lives that heavily influences their overall success."
Whether you're lucky enough to witness the path of totality this April or only catch a partial eclipse, the event offers a unique opportunity. Take a moment to look around and notice how animals big and small react – even humans may find themselves feeling a bit disoriented. For scientists like Hartstone-Rose, it's far more than just a fascinating spectacle. "Honestly, I wasn't expecting the eclipse to be particularly exciting scientifically, but now I'm hooked," he admits. "It's like I want to follow eclipses around the world and see as many as I can!"
Beyond Birds and Zoos: Studying Eclipses in the Wild
While zoo-based studies and crowd-sourced observations offer valuable data, some researchers are interested in exploring how wild animals react to the abrupt nightfall of a total solar eclipse. One such study was led by Ana Catarina Silva, a biologist focusing on primates. During a 2019 total eclipse in Chile, Silva observed a troop of tufted capuchin monkeys in the wild. These normally active primates seemed to interpret totality as a signal to wind down for the night. They gathered in their sleeping tree earlier than usual, even huddling together in a manner usually reserved for colder evenings.
In the 2017 eclipse, there were also intriguing (and sometimes conflicting) reports of other species' reactions in natural settings. Some sources noted dolphins swimming in unusual patterns during totality, while others claimed the event had no impact on their behavior. Observations of fish seemed equally split – some apparently changing movement patterns, others continuing with their usual routines. Anecdotal stories also included accounts of spiders dismantling their webs mid-day, as they might do in preparation for nightfall. However, the lack of standardized observation methods and the inherent variability of nature make it difficult to draw concrete conclusions from these reports.
Innovative Techniques in Eclipse Research: Uncovering the Impact on Wildlife Through Technology
To address the challenges of studying wild animals during unpredictable eclipse events, researchers are getting creative. Elise Richey, then a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, took a unique approach during the 2017 eclipse, deploying bio-loggers on honeybees in Missouri. These small, bee-mounted devices recorded data like flight patterns and body temperature. The data seemed to show that the bees treated totality as nightfall, decreasing their activity and allowing their body temperatures to cool slightly.
Other studies have focused on monitoring changes in the atmosphere associated with a total eclipse. These changes – a sudden drop in temperature and a shift in wind patterns, for example – can resemble the approach of a storm, influencing animal behavior. This raises the question of whether some of the observed "eclipse responses" could actually be reactions to these meteorological shifts rather than the darkness itself.
For the 2024 eclipse, some researchers are taking a tech-focused approach. A team at Oregon Institute of Technology is developing specialized monitoring equipment that would be deployed within the path of totality. Their plan includes acoustic sensors to capture shifts in the natural soundscape as well as motion-detection cameras to capture any changes in larger animals' movement patterns. This approach could help untangle whether animal responses are driven by the light change itself or the atmospheric disruptions that come with it.
The Wider Impacts: Beyond Direct Animal Behavior
The sudden darkness of a total solar eclipse doesn't just influence animals directly. The event can also create ripple effects through entire ecosystems. For instance, the temporary halt in daytime activity for insects like bees presents challenges for plants that rely on them for pollination. Studies during past eclipses have suggested that some flowers may briefly close their petals in response to the darkness and temperature drop, only reopening once the sun has returned. This interruption, while short-lived, could potentially decrease a plant's ability to reproduce successfully.
Other eclipse-related changes could impact predator-prey interactions. Some nocturnal hunters might benefit from the extra darkness, gaining an edge over prey species not as well-adapted to moving around in low-light conditions. On the other hand, predators who rely on keen daytime vision might have more difficulty finding and catching their food during a sudden midday blackout.
Even human technology isn't immune to the eclipse's effects. Solar panels lose their energy-generating ability during totality, creating a challenge for power grids that rely on them. Scientists and engineers use eclipses as a natural experiment to test how quickly power grids can recover from a sudden drop in output and whether backup energy sources can be switched on fast enough to prevent outages.
Unlocking Atmospheric Secrets: How Solar Eclipses Offer a Rare Glimpse into Upper Atmospheric Dynamics
One surprising benefit of solar eclipses comes in the form of atmospheric studies. Typically, studying the upper atmosphere is tricky as balloons can only reach limited heights, and satellites orbit too high up. However, a total eclipse creates a unique band of fast-moving shadow traveling at supersonic speeds. This shadow alters the upper atmospheric conditions in predictable ways, allowing scientists to use it as a unique research tool. It's like conducting a rapid-fire experiment on the atmosphere without the need for expensive equipment launches.
As scientists gather more data with each eclipse, one conclusion seems clear: the natural world is remarkably responsive to unexpected shifts in its environment. Even events that humans consider short-lived can influence the delicate balance of ecosystems in complex ways.
Of course, studying animal behavior during an eclipse presents an inherent challenge – the event's unpredictable and fleeting nature. However, the collaborative efforts of researchers and citizen scientists, along with advances in technology, are giving us an ever-clearer picture of how creatures great and small experience this celestial phenomenon. Who knows what discoveries the April 2024 eclipse will bring?
Image Credit - BBC
The Joy of Discovery: Why Eclipses Matter
It might seem frivolous to dedicate time and resources to understanding how squirrels react to a few minutes of unusual darkness. However, studying animal reactions to eclipses is not merely about satisfying curiosity about an odd phenomenon. These studies offer value on several levels.
Firstly, eclipses provide a unique opportunity to study how animals respond to sudden, unexpected changes in their environment. In a world rapidly changing due to factors like climate change and habitat loss, it's valuable to understand how resilient different species are to disruption. Do they easily adapt, do they suffer negative consequences, or perhaps even see unexpected benefits? Studying the effects of something as relatively benign as an eclipse could help predict how animals might respond to more significant, long-term environmental shifts.
Eclipses as Environmental Indicators: Revealing Species' Sensitivity to Light Pollution and Inspiring Citizen Science
Eclipses could even act as an early warning system for species particularly sensitive to light pollution. Our brightly lit cities create confusion for some nocturnal animals and migratory birds. If a short eclipse has a noticeable impact on a particular species' behavior, it could be a sign that they rely heavily on natural light cycles and might be especially vulnerable to the effects of artificial light.
Beyond the immediate animal-focused concerns, eclipse studies offer the opportunity to engage a huge number of people in scientific research. Crowdsourced projects like those run by Johnson and Hartstone-Rose give everyday nature lovers a way to actively contribute to real science. This type of accessible research can spark a greater sense of wonder about the natural world and encourage people to take an interest in environmental issues more broadly.
Ultimately, even if a given research project only answers a small question about how one specific animal reacts to an eclipse, it's part of a broader effort. Each study adds to our understanding of how intertwined our world is. Humans might think we're separate from the natural world, but the reality is we share this planet with a stunning variety of creatures who respond and adapt to the same cosmic events we do. Perhaps the greatest lesson eclipses teach us is a sense of interconnected wonder at the beautiful complexity of life on Earth.
