(CNN)While most of us will be looking up at the eclipse August 21,
you may also want to look around and take a close listen, because something
unusual could be happening with the animals on our planet -- at least, we think
it could.
"There are many
more scientific papers about Sasquatch than about animal behavior during an
eclipse," said Adam Hartstone-Rose, adjunct scientist at the Riverbanks
Zoo and Garden in Columbia, South Carolina.
The Riverbanks Zoo and Garden has been fielding dozens of calls from the public
about what the zoo plans to do for the big day. It and a handful of other
animal parks are in the path of full totality. That means, with the full
eclipse over their zoos, there's a chance to enlist the public to see what, if
anything, animals are doing when their sun disappears and the temperature drops.
If you have ever put
one of those thunder jackets on to calm your pooch during a storm
(other than to take cute pictures), you know that animals can be more sensitive to natural phenomena than humans, toiling
away in windowless, temperature-controlled offices. Well, if you don't count
the human excitement that comes from taking selfies while wearing those funky
eclipse glasses.
The Nashville Zoo
will be handing out those funky glasses on eclipse day, and it's encouraging
visitors to leave their animal observations on the zoo's social media page or
to make comments on the app INaturalist. You too can use that app to share photos
and jot down notes on animal or even plant behavior, even if you're not at the
zoo. However, the scientists would likely prefer you keep your observations to
animals of the fluffy and scaled variety; photos of your bizarre co-worker's
behavior during the eclipse may be a better fit for Facebook or Instagram.
The Tennessee
Aquarium in Chattanooga has plans to watch its lemurs carefully. There is
evidence from past eclipses that lemurs "behave oddly during these
events," according to Thom Benson, the aquarium's director of external
affairs. The Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago is betting something could happen with
its collection of chimps, which it will be watching closely.
The director at the
Riverbanks Zoo and Garden predicts that its animals may display subtle change.
"We don't think we will see the giraffes doing back flips that day,"
said Ed Diebold, Riverbanks' director of animal collections and conservation.
"We are curious, though, to see what will happen."
Whatever change they
experience, Diebold and his team will be ready. Hartstone-Rose and his
scientists, along with the keepers who know the animals best, and the public
who will be given surveys to record their observations will all be ready. If
they see anything, they hope to include these data in a research paper. The
experts there will likely concentrate on the primates, the elephants, the
giraffes, the birds and the reptiles, most of which have demonstrated
interesting behavior in prior eclipse events.
"There are
interesting philosophical questions too, because we don't know how to tell when
a giraffe perceives the sun, but we know they are affected by this,"
Hartstone-Rose said. He thinks that if some of the more vocal animals get
anxious, they'll start making more noise. Some animals may prepare for bed,
others may wake up, but not all animals will care.
"Giraffes, for
instance, don't have a lot of reason to look up, because there are no predators
for them that come from above, so the staff feels there won't be enormous changes
there, but there may be with others, and hopefully we can tease the changes
out."
Scientists have been
watching animal behavior during eclipses for centuries, although the
reliability of some accounts may be more believable than others. In the 1500s,
an astronomer noted that birds fell out of trees and stopped singing. Keep in
mind, scientists in that era also thought leeches were a cure for many ailments
too, so no, you don't have to skip lunch outside to avoid the falling pigeons.
In the Victorian era,
a scientist noted that ants that were "busily carrying their burdens,
stopped and remained motionless till the light reappeared." And in the
more recent era, scientists during a 1997 solar eclipse in Mexico noticed that
lizards also seemed to react and perform the same activities as they would
during sunset, but that may be a little harder to observe, since they buried
themselves below the soil making up their little lizard beds.
Another
official-sounding scientific group called the New England Eclipse Behavior Committee did a pre-Internet-era version of crowdsourcing and had
skilled and unskilled observers send in observations. The notes show that some
bird species returned to their roost and quieted down. Others noted that the
hippos remained on alert, partially hidden underwater; captive squirrels got
agitated; bees stopped humming; butterflies disappeared; painted turtles sought
shelter; chickens huddled together; cows, however, seemed "quite
unconcerned."
Other studies have
shown that the eclipse can be a rude awakening for some nocturnal creatures.
Bugs that you would normally see active at dusk or at night have gotten active
for a few minutes during previous eclipses. That means
mosquitoes may come out of their
nap for their midnight snack during
the event, so bring your bug spray if you plan to be outside. Thankfully, most
of the pests did disappear when the heat of the sun came back. Scientists have
noticed frogs start singing during the eclipse.
The temperature drop
that comes with an eclipse also seems to impact some animals. In 1991, scientists who happened
to be collecting cicadas in the Arizona desert noticed that the bugs went
silent when coverage of the sun reached about 50%. Typically, male cicadas sing
to attract a mate. Scientists don't think the eclipse acted like a cold shower
to kill the romantic mood; rather, these particular cicadas needed radiant
energy to elevate their body temperature enough to be physically able to sing.
There was good news for cicada romance, in that love did win out, and they went
back to their courting song about 20 minutes after the eclipse.
Chimps, who don't
need the sun to chat among themselves, also seemed to react. During the 1984 eclipse,
scientists at the Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center in Atlanta noticed
that the females with babies and some of the solo gals all began to gather on a
climbing structure when it started to get dark. The females, who typically
socialized on the structure and would normally turn toward each other, instead faced
the direction of the eclipse and started to watch the sky. One young chimp even
stood and pointed at the eclipse.
It wasn't as dramatic
as the opening scene from "2001: A Space
Odyssey," but the animals did go
back to their normal chimp business once the eclipse was over.
Join
the conversation
As far as your pets,
you can watch them, but don't count on a viral video. Studies have shown more
mixed results. A study from the 1970s found that pet rabbits mostly slept. A
few caged birds got agitated. Some dogs ignored the eclipse; a few seemed
scared; a few barked when it was over. Cats, well, cats were cats. Some played,
some meowed, but for the most part they slept, again showing off their best
quality, as anyone who owns a cat knows: Our feline friends think the sun and
the moon revolve around them, so what's the big deal about a more little shade?’
FROM THE DESK OF ANIMAL RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA.
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/07/health/animals-react-to-the-eclipse/index.html
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