(WSVN) - Have you ever wondered how animals react during a solar eclipse?
One minute, the sky is bright. Then, it slowly dims until its completely dark outside, but only for a few minutes.
During that time, experts say there’s an instant switch in animal behavior. Scientists are using the rare occurrence to take a closer look at these changes.
“The Komodo dragon we were watching before the 2017 eclipse, it literally didn’t move at all,” said Adam Hartstone-Rose, professor of biological sciences at North Carolina State University. “We watched it all day Saturday. We watched it all day Sunday. Then, the eclipse was on Monday, and just in those couple of minutes during the eclipse, it started running around and had a reaction.”
In 2017, researchers observed many animal patterns at a South Carolina zoo that was in the path of total darkness. They said a flock of flamingos displayed behaviors connected with an early dusk.
“The flamingos all gathered around their chicks during the eclipse, the peak of the eclipse, like they were trying to protect the chicks,” Hartstone-Rose said.
Gorillas went into their nighttime routines during the eclipse.
“The gorillas, they spend their day outside, and then at night, they’re moved into, like, an indoor enclosure where they get their final food, and then they go to sleep,” Hartstone-Rose said. “And, in the middle of the day, the whole group of gorillas wandered over towards the enclosure, as if to be able to be let in at night.”
Researchers plan to study similar species in Texas, hoping to point to larger patterns.
“It sounds like a lot of what we know about animal behavior during eclipses is hard to believe,” Hartstone-Rose said. “And yes, most of it is based on one person’s observations of potentially one animal. But the only way that we can confirm this stuff is to take every opportunity that we can to go out and witness it ourselves.”
Researchers across many zoos in the path of the solar eclipse will get the chance to track animals on Monday.
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