How Will the Solar Eclipse Affect Animals? NASA Needs Your Help to Find Out
This story originally appeared on WIRED en Español, and has been translated from Spanish.The shadow of a total solar eclipse will cross some regions of Mexico, the United States, and Canada on April 8. The day will be obscured by a brief false night. The infrequency with which such a phenomenon occurs in that area makes it an anomalous event for the animals that live there. So far, most of the information on animal reactions to an eclipse is anecdotal, but there are scientific efforts to make systematic observations. NASA has a plan to increase our scientific understanding of how animals react to eclipses—and to make that happen, it needs your help.In a total solar eclipse, the moon is positioned in alignment between the Earth and the sun. To view an eclipse, you need to be on the sunny side of the planet (where it's daytime) and be located directly in the path of the lunar shadow as it occurs. The alignment causes the moon's shadow to be cast on the planet's surface. That such an event occurs in the same place only once every 300 to 400 years does not imply, however, that the phenomenon is rare in general. A total solar eclipse occurs, on average, every 18 months somewhere. Many times it falls over the ocean; its audience is usually marine species.Camels are silhouetted as the moon partially obscures the sun during a partial solar eclipse visible from Pushkar on October 25, 2022.HIMANSHU SHARMA/Getty ImagesAnimal EffectsWe know that sunlight is a reliable environmental signal by which plants and animals regulate their biological clock, but how an eclipse affects this process isn't well documented. Scientific reports on changes in animal behavior during eclipses are few and sometimes contradictory.In the summer of 1991, a group of scientists were in Arizona collecting cicadas for a study. During a partial solar eclipse, they noticed that the cicadas stopped singing when the moon's shadow reduced the sunlight by half. The change in temperature was noticeable; they were in a desert, and they concluded that this influenced the insects.During a total solar eclipse in Veracruz, Mexico, a team of biologists studied the behavior of colonial orb-weaving spiders. When the umbra (the darkest part of the moon's shadow) arrived, the specimens behaved atypically and began to tear down their webs. When the sun reappeared, most of those that had begun to tear down their webs rebuilt them. During the experiment, the researchers artificially illuminated part of a colony. The spiders that missed the eclipse because of the scientists' light did not exhibit this behavior.There are more accounts. In Bharatpur, India, under short twilight in 1995, scientists reported night herons leaving their daytime roosts. A year earlier, in Kansas, four species of diurnal birds acted as if it were night. In 1984, captive chimpanzees in Georgia were seen climbing to the highest parts of their enclosure facing the sky.
NASA’s Eclipse Soundscapes project will collect observations and soundscapes recorded by the public during the April 8 total solar eclipse.
This story originally appeared on WIRED en Español, and has been translated from Spanish.
The shadow of a total solar eclipse will cross some regions of Mexico, the United States, and Canada on April 8. The day will be obscured by a brief false night. The infrequency with which such a phenomenon occurs in that area makes it an anomalous event for the animals that live there. So far, most of the information on animal reactions to an eclipse is anecdotal, but there are scientific efforts to make systematic observations. NASA has a plan to increase our scientific understanding of how animals react to eclipses—and to make that happen, it needs your help.
In a total solar eclipse, the moon is positioned in alignment between the Earth and the sun. To view an eclipse, you need to be on the sunny side of the planet (where it's daytime) and be located directly in the path of the lunar shadow as it occurs. The alignment causes the moon's shadow to be cast on the planet's surface. That such an event occurs in the same place only once every 300 to 400 years does not imply, however, that the phenomenon is rare in general. A total solar eclipse occurs, on average, every 18 months somewhere. Many times it falls over the ocean; its audience is usually marine species.
Camels are silhouetted as the moon partially obscures the sun during a partial solar eclipse visible from Pushkar on October 25, 2022.HIMANSHU SHARMA/Getty Images
Animal Effects
We know that sunlight is a reliable environmental signal by which plants and animals regulate their biological clock, but how an eclipse affects this process isn't well documented. Scientific reports on changes in animal behavior during eclipses are few and sometimes contradictory.
In the summer of 1991, a group of scientists were in Arizona collecting cicadas for a study. During a partial solar eclipse, they noticed that the cicadas stopped singing when the moon's shadow reduced the sunlight by half. The change in temperature was noticeable; they were in a desert, and they concluded that this influenced the insects.
During a total solar eclipse in Veracruz, Mexico, a team of biologists studied the behavior of colonial orb-weaving spiders. When the umbra (the darkest part of the moon's shadow) arrived, the specimens behaved atypically and began to tear down their webs. When the sun reappeared, most of those that had begun to tear down their webs rebuilt them. During the experiment, the researchers artificially illuminated part of a colony. The spiders that missed the eclipse because of the scientists' light did not exhibit this behavior.
There are more accounts. In Bharatpur, India, under short twilight in 1995, scientists reported night herons leaving their daytime roosts. A year earlier, in Kansas, four species of diurnal birds acted as if it were night. In 1984, captive chimpanzees in Georgia were seen climbing to the highest parts of their enclosure facing the sky.