By Sophia Byl
Among the exclamations I heard at about 3:18pm on Monday, April 8th were “This is crazy!”, “Look at how dark it is!”, and one very passionate “Go Bills!”. This was the rightfully hyped up moment of totality we had all been anticipating for months, even years, and for good reason. Total eclipses are rare enough as it is, and to have them occur at essentially your front doorstep is nothing to take lightly. Or darkly?
I myself invited a couple of friends from out of state to experience the eclipse, and the event was nothing short of ethereal. We set up our little semicircle of lawn chairs with a plate of snacks and specially decorated eclipse cupcakes (to be eaten once totality had ended), donned our glasses, and looked up, along with millions of others across the world. The air got chillier and the sky got darker, and although the clouds were feeling spiteful and tried to hide the eclipse from us, nothing can compare to the moment when the sun slipped behind the moon and everything went beautifully dark.
And somehow, throughout all the festivities and emotions, two parties seemed to not give the eclipse a second thought: my cats. They simply relaxed, as they typically do, on the living room couch. At some point during those 3 or 4 minutes of totality, one of them came up to the screen door and glanced at the phenomenon happening right before his eyes, then returned to his resting place on the couch. How could he dismiss such a monumental occasion with one flick of his tail? Turns out, many pets may react in a similar way to eclipses due to their resemblance to a normal occurrence in their daily lives: the switching on and off of house lights.
Dr. M. Leanne Lilly, a veterinary behavioral scientist at Ohio State’s College of Veterinary Medicine, explained that most animals’ reactions to the sudden darkness is similar to that of their nighttime routines. Since it’s not actually night, this could in turn throw off their circadian rhythms, regardless of whether or not they are actually nocturnal. However, Dr. Lilly also added that human activity impacts animal behavior as well. If a squirrel, bird, or other skittish wild animal sees an unexpectedly large group of humans glancing at the sky and acting excitedly as rapid darkness falls, that animal would likely have a much more intense reaction than if it simply experienced the eclipse in the middle of woods, only surrounded by other animals.
At the Buffalo Zoo, visitors reported hearing the birds screaming and the lions roaring as the moon began blocking out the sun. Would the animals have reacted this way if there wasn’t an abnormally large crowd of thrilled humans watching the eclipse along with them? It’s a bit difficult to conduct such an experiment, but by observing wild animals with radar data from weather surveillance networks, scientists were able to draw some conclusions.
Researchers at North Carolina State University compared the behavior of zoo animals from the behavior of wild animals gathered by radar, as well as comparing animal behaviors during past eclipses. They found that the behavior of giraffes at the Riverbanks Zoo in South Carolina was similar to the behavior of giraffes in the Nashville Zoo during the 2017 solar eclipse and of wild giraffes in Zambia during an eclipse in 2001 – nervous galloping, pacing, and huddling together.
Dr. Adam Hartstone-Rose, a professor of biological sciences at NC State, chalked up the giraffe’s reaction to anxiety, and noted that multiple other species at the Riverbanks Zoo, such as flamingos and gorillas, also displayed anxious behavior. The flamingos huddled together and watched the sky warily, which is similar to what they do when they think an aerial predator is present. Meanwhile, one male gorilla charged the glass when totality occurred, an aggressive reaction that could be due to the lack of light or the overstimulation provided by large crowds of humans.
Perhaps the most curious response to the eclipse was that of the Galápagos tortoises at the Riverbanks Zoo, who started mating once totality set in. Dr. Hartstone-Rose observed the normally calm and slow-moving reptiles act uncharacteristically energized, and the research group described this as a “novel response” to totality. “Galapágos tortoises are not charismatic animals. They’re like funny-looking boulders that live to well over 100 years old,” Hartstone-Rose remarked at the total eclipse of the tortoise heart.
So reactions to the eclipse varied all over the animal kingdom – an unenthusiastic blink from my cats, anxious galloping by giraffes, nighttime preparation by most other species, and mating Galápagos tortoises. Only one question remains: do animals need to wear eclipse glasses? Dr. Hartstone-Rose says that while the glasses are not necessary, since animals do not look at the sun, they look wonderful “as a fashion statement”. Why not get a photo of your furry, scaly, or feathery friend in some cool shades as a last little hoorah before the eclipse fun comes to an end? You’ll have yet another memory to add to this unforgettable experience.
