Researchers and citizen scientists will observe how animals' routines at several zoos are disrupted during the April 8 total solar eclipse.

When a total solar eclipse transforms day into night, will tortoises start acting romantic? Will giraffes gallop? Will apes sing odd notes?

Researchers will be standing by to observe how animals’ routines at the Fort Worth Zoo in Texas are disrupted when skies dim on April 8. They previously detected other strange animal behaviors in 2017 at a South Carolina zoo that was in the path of total darkness.

“To our astonishment, most of the animals did surprising things,” said Adam Hartstone-Rose, a North Carolina State University researcher who led the observations published in the journal Animals.

  • Catoblepas
    7·
    8 months ago

    It happening every 18 months doesn’t help if it’s not happening every 18 months over a zoo or other location that studying animals is easy. You can browse future solar eclipses here and see how many are over the arctic/antarcitc, open ocean, a tiny portion of the tip of a continent, etc.

    It’s also something that lasts for only a few minutes when it does occur, so it’s going to take a many eclipses to collect large amounts of data.