How do animals react during a total solar eclipse? Scientists plan to find out in April (apnews.com)
from throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to science@mander.xyz on 21 Mar 2024 05:44
https://lemmy.nz/post/8283749

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autotldr@lemmings.world on 21 Mar 2024 05:45 next collapse

This is the best summary I could come up with:


While there are many individual sightings of critters behaving bizarrely during historic eclipses, only in recent years have scientists started to rigorously study the altered behaviors of wild, domestic and zoo animals.

Seven years ago, Galapagos tortoises at the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, South Carolina, “that generally do absolutely nothing all day … during the peak of the eclipse, they all started breeding,” said Hartstone-Rose.

In April, Hartstone-Rose’s team plans to study similar species in Texas to see if the behaviors they witnessed before in South Carolina point to larger patterns.

This year’s full solar eclipse in North America crisscrosses a different route than in 2017 and occurs in a different season, giving researchers and citizen scientists opportunities to observe new habits.

“During a solar eclipse, there’s a conflict between their internal rhythms and external environment,” said University of Alberta’s Olav Rueppell, adding that bees rely on polarized light from the sun to navigate.

As for indoor pets, they may react as much to what their owners are doing – whether they’re excited or nonchalant about the eclipse – as to any changes in the sky, said University of Arkansas animal researcher Raffaela Lesch.


The original article contains 661 words, the summary contains 194 words. Saved 71%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

Kolanaki@yiffit.net on 21 Mar 2024 05:46 next collapse

How do we not already know?

FlowVoid@lemmy.world on 21 Mar 2024 06:10 next collapse

Because the vast majority of animals who see the upcoming eclipse will never have seen one before.

Fal@yiffit.net on 21 Mar 2024 07:34 collapse

How is that an answer to the question?

metaStatic@kbin.social on 21 Mar 2024 09:28 collapse

Because the vast majority of animals who answer questions on the internet have never seen one before.

ItsAFake@lemmus.org on 21 Mar 2024 07:32 next collapse

Because everyone was too busy looking at the solar eclipse!

communist@beehaw.org on 21 Mar 2024 09:11 collapse

This is actually extremely difficult to study

www.youtube.com/watch?v=idlq8zCrUkY

TheBat@lemmy.world on 21 Mar 2024 11:26 next collapse

And how do they react during Total Eclipse of the Heart?

Num10ck@lemmy.world on 21 Mar 2024 13:41 collapse

like hurrah torpedo

athos77@kbin.social on 21 Mar 2024 12:19 collapse

There's also Eclipse Soundscapes, a citizen-science project by NASA.