The Great North American Eclipse: Unveiling the Mysteries of Animal Behavior
On April 8, a rare celestial event will unfold across Mexico, the United States, and Canada—a total solar eclipse. As the moon’s shadow briefly engulfs these regions in an eerie false night, the infrequent occurrence of such a phenomenon in the area makes it an anomalous event for the local fauna. While most information on animal reactions to eclipses remains anecdotal, scientific efforts are underway to systematically observe and document these behaviors. NASA has devised a plan to expand our scientific understanding of how animals respond to eclipses, and they need your help to make it happen.
The Alignment of Celestial Bodies
During a total solar eclipse, the moon aligns perfectly between the Earth and the sun, casting its shadow on the planet’s surface. To witness this spectacle, one must be on the sunlit side of the Earth (during daytime) and positioned directly in the path of the lunar shadow. Although a total solar eclipse occurs somewhere on Earth every 18 months on average, the same location experiences this phenomenon only once every 300 to 400 years. Many times, the eclipse falls over the ocean, with marine life as its primary audience.
Deciphering the Impact on Animals
Sunlight serves as a reliable environmental cue for plants and animals to regulate their biological clocks. However, the effects of an eclipse on this process remain poorly documented, with scientific reports on changes in animal behavior during eclipses being scarce and sometimes contradictory.
In the summer of 1991, scientists in Arizona noticed that cicadas stopped singing when the moon’s shadow reduced sunlight by half during a partial solar eclipse. They attributed this behavior to the noticeable temperature change in the desert environment. Similarly, a team of biologists studying colonial orb-weaving spiders in Veracruz, Mexico, observed that the specimens behaved atypically and began dismantling their webs when the umbra (the darkest part of the moon’s shadow) arrived. Most of the spiders that had started tearing down their webs rebuilt them once the sun reappeared.
Other accounts include night herons leaving their daytime roosts in Bharatpur, India, during a short twilight in 1995, and four species of diurnal birds in Kansas acting as if it were nighttime a year earlier. In 1984, captive chimpanzees in Georgia were seen climbing to the highest parts of their enclosure, facing the sky. Anecdotal evidence also suggests that birds stop singing, crickets cease chirping, and bees return to their hives, reduce foraging, or suspend flight during total darkness. However, some studies dispute the occurrence or attribution of these behaviors to the eclipse.
NASA’s Eclipse Soundscapes Citizen Science Project
To systematize observations and document what people hear and see under the moon’s shadow, NASA has launched the Eclipse Soundscapes citizen science project. Inspired by a study conducted nearly a century ago by William M. Wheeler and collaborators, who collected nearly 500 reports from citizens, park rangers, and naturalists on the activities of various animal species during the summer eclipse of 1932, NASA aims to gather experiences from volunteers during the upcoming annular solar eclipse on October 14, 2023, and the total solar eclipse on April 8.
The Path of Totality
The total solar eclipse on April 8 will first be visible in Mazatlan, Mexico, before traversing Nazas, Torreon, Monclova, and Piedras Negras. These locations will experience the eclipse in its totality, while nearby regions will witness a partial eclipse with less darkness. The eclipse will then enter the United States through Texas, passing through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Finally, it will cross Canada from southern Ontario, continuing through Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Cape Breton. Astronomical estimates suggest that the Mexican port of Mazatlan will be the best place to observe the 2024 event, with totality occurring around 11:07 am local time.
Become a Citizen Scientist
With 30 million people living in the area where the eclipse will be perceived as total in the United States alone, the potential for collecting experiences is immense when considering the Mexican and Canadian public. NASA aims to harness this potential through its citizen science project, which offers several levels of volunteering: apprentice, observer, data collector, data analyst, and facilitator.
Apprentices can take an online course and earn a certificate, while observers are encouraged to record their experiences using any means available on the day of the eclipse and share their findings with the project using a special format. Data collectors will be equipped with AudioMoth recording devices to capture soundscapes over extended periods, and data analysts will study the recordings obtained by the collectors. Facilitators will receive training to organize groups and brigades to perform some or all of the aforementioned activities.
Soundscapes and Ecosystem Effects
The study’s design, which will be informed by the data collected by volunteers, is supported by an advisory board comprising acoustic biologists and soundscape ecologists. They aim to determine whether ecosystem sounds can be used to deduce significant effects of eclipses on animal behavior and to identify the necessary percentage of the phenomenon required to produce detectable changes in soundscapes.
This is not the first attempt to analyze changes in soundscapes to assess ecosystem effects during solar eclipses or to use a zoo as a study site. In 2017, the behavior of 17 species was recorded at Riverbanks Zoo in South Carolina and compared to previous observations. Seventy-five percent of the observed species exhibited behavioral responses to the eclipse, with most displaying their evening or nocturnal behaviors. The second-most observed behavior was apparent anxiety, which the study notes is not known to be in response to human presence.
A Timeless Fascination
Solar eclipses have captivated and sometimes frightened humankind for millennia. Today, they present opportunities to expand our scientific knowledge, allowing researchers to direct measuring instruments into the solar corona and evaluate the phenomenon’s impact on atmospheric conditions. Nicolaus Copernicus himself observed this phenomenon through a camera obscura, which, along with other observations, helped establish that the sun, not the Earth, was at the center of our planetary system.
As we eagerly await the Great North American Eclipse, NASA’s citizen science project invites us all to contribute to our understanding of how this rare celestial event affects the animal kingdom. By becoming apprentices, observers, data collectors, analysts, or facilitators, we can help unravel the mysteries of animal behavior during solar eclipses and further our appreciation of the intricate connections between the heavens and the Earth.
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So NASA’s swapping spacesuits for lab coats to figure out if squirrels also think the sun vanishing is funky!
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Seems NASA’s latest adventure isn’t just star-gazing; it’s critter-watching during eclipses. How’s that for a twist?
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Guess it’s not just humans who get all weird during a solar eclipse, huh? NASA’s on the case!
Turns out, eclipses are more than just cosmic block parties; NASA’s diving into the animal kingdom to see who else is on the guest list!