[Animals] Anxiety, Bedtime and Mating: How Animals May React to the Eclipse

[Angel of Death]

While millions of people are preparing to watch the total solar eclipse that will make its way across North America on Monday, the animals in that affected area — in homes, on farms, in zoos and in the wild — missed the news that the moon will block the sun, briefly turning day into night. How they react to that swift and unexpected change of light and temperature, which in some places will last as long as four-and-a-half minutes, is anyone’s guess. Cows may mosey into their barns for bedtime. Flamingoes may huddle together in fear. The giant, slow-motion Galápagos tortoise may even get frisky and mate. Circadian rhythms might take a noticeable hit, with nocturnal animals mistakenly waking up and starting their day only to realize that, whoa, nighttime is already over. And then there will be some animals, perhaps particularly lazy domestic cats or warthogs focused on foraging, who might not give the dark sky a second thought. ADVERTISEMENT SKIP ADVERTISEMENT “Everybody wants to see how they are going to react,” said Robert Shumaker, the chief executive and president of the Indianapolis Zoo, which will experience nearly four minutes of darkness. It’s one of several prominent zoos situated along the path of totality, a gentle arc stretching from Texas to Maine, where researchers, animal keepers, volunteers and the public will be studying the animals’ response to the eclipse. Dr. Shumaker, an expert in animal behavior and cognition, said that “most of the animals, of course, they’re going to notice that there’s something unusual happening.” Image Robert Shumaker, in a blue shirt and khaki pants, feeds a kangaroo while other kangaroos lounge in the background. “Everybody wants to see how they are going to react,” said Robert Shumaker, the chief executive and president of the Indianapolis Zoo.Credit...Kaiti Sullivan for The New York Times Most animals will likely be confused by the darkness and will start their nighttime routines, said Dr. M. Leanne Lilly, a veterinary behaviorist at Ohio State’s College of Veterinary Medicine. But the way humans react to the eclipse — looking at the sky, expressing excitement or gathering in a group — could affect domesticated animals, like dogs or cats, because pets can act strangely when their humans are acting strangely, Dr. Lilly said. ADVERTISEMENT SKIP ADVERTISEMENT “That can make any of our domestic animals feel like things are not as safe and predictable as they are supposed to be,” Dr. Lilly said, adding that any unusual human behavior can disturb pets because they are “domesticated to attend to us.” “We might be the problem,” she said, with a laugh. How animals will react to solar eclipses can only give hints of animal behavior because the relatively few studies of the topic are often conflicting. One study in 1560 cited that “birds fell to the ground.” Other studies said birds went to roost, or fell silent, or continued to sing and coo — or flew straight into houses. Dogs either barked or whimpered, or did not bark or whimper. A study of the 1932 eclipse, which was thought to be the first comprehensive research conducted on the subject and included observations from the public, explained that it received “a good deal of conflicting testimony” from people who had observed mammals. It concluded that several animals showed the strongest responses: squirrels ran into the woods and cattle and sheep headed for their barns. Zoo animals, the study said, showed little or no response, and Dr. Shumaker does not expect the animals at the Indianapolis Zoo to show much of an unusual response, because “they take a lot of things in stride.” ADVERTISEMENT SKIP ADVERTISEMENT “We’re thinking that this will be a very casual and easy experience for the animals,” he said, adding that some might experience “a little bit of confusion” about what’s going on. “I certainly don’t anticipate that it will be alarming to them.” Image A man in a dark shirt and an orange hat looks at flamingoes in an enclosure. A zoo visitor watches the flamingos at the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in Columbia, S.C.Credit...Will Crooks for The New York Times Dr. Shumaker is as curious as anyone to see what the animals will do, and in 2017, Adam Hartstone-Rose, now a professor of biological sciences at North Carolina State University, tried to get some answers. Before that total solar eclipse crossed the United States, he launched a formal study of animals at the Riverbanks Zoo & Garden in Columbia., S.C., and it resulted in what was likely the broadest study of animals during an eclipse since the 1932 effort. Just as he is doing next week at the Fort Worth Zoo, Dr. Hartstone-Rose assembled a group of researchers, animal keepers and volunteers to observe animals before, during and after totality.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/04/us/solar-eclipse-animals-pets-zoo.html