translated from Spanish: How are animals going to react to the total eclipse of the sun?

It is not uncommon for animals to be affected in the face of a total eclipse of the sun, as all creatures have behavioral patterns linked to both light and dark cycles and temperature. In front of the total eclipse of the sun that will take place on Tuesday afternoon and that will be visible in Argentina, we spoke with Matías Pandolfi, researcher of CONICET and specialist in animal behavior. What do studies on animals and eclipses say?
“What the ellipse does is advance at dusk, with all that entails. Lower the temperature, it goes dark. When night falls, the animals start producing the hormone melatonin, which is the biological synchroniser that tells them that it is no more than day,” explains Matias Pandolfi. The problem is that if you want to do a rigorous analysis of the behavior of the animals against the eclipse, it is necessary to make an observation the days before, during, and several days after the phenomenon, to see if the behavior patterns of the animal being studied. But, as we know, eclipses of this type occur infrequently and are not always visible in the same places. The few studies that are, in general, deal with isolated cases, difficult to replicate. “That’s why they’re important studies. Making a parallel, when an isolated case of a person who is cured of a rare disease or who has a strange pathology is published, it remains of the utmost relevance to the scientific community,” says Pandolfi.Another complication is the lack of a pattern general: there are groups of animals that do not react, and others that do, it is a matter of investigating animal by animal. Unlike us, who know what an eclipse is and why it occurs, animals are not aware of the phenomenon. It is therefore likely, to feel it only as an overtaking of the night. What’s going to happen in wild animals?

If the animal is of daytime habits, it will surely stop its activity. Some mammals will go to their burrows to sleep and the birds will go to their shelters, as pelicans do. If, on the other hand, they are nocturnal animals, they will increase their actions. Frogs, for example, will sing if they are male and bats will begin their regular activities. However, it all depends on the duration and time of the year the eclipse occurs. If it happens in the middle of summer, at two o’clock in the afternoon, the phenomenon is much more visually evident than if it happens in winter near sunset. Usually, once the sun “rises again,” the initial regular activity is resumed.

A study conducted after the 2017 total eclipse in Georgia showed that chimpanzees showed behavioral disturbances and a lot of curiosity about what was happening in the sky

And what’s going to happen to pets?

This research generates debates in the scientific world. Some people don’t give it a ball and another does, and on the outside there’s also the whole esoteric “my dog happened to such a thing,” which doesn’t make sense either.

As Pandolfi points out, it is very difficult to analyze the effects on pets. First, because its “natural habitat”, of natural has nothing. Not only because of the constant artificial light that partially modifies functions related to the biological clock of animals, but also because of the way in which these animals are raised by their owners.
That’s why you can’t use the same criteria to analyze the behavior of a home kitten as you can analyze that of a wildcat. Over the years, modifications are made and each animal has its own characteristics. All the behaviors that one can study change and it is very difficult to apply these standards to animals that come from what is called artificial selection, that is, that performed by man.  “Cats are quite similar to their ancestors, they are more independent and wild. Dogs, while still have characteristics shared with their ancestors, are much more modified to live with man,” says the researcher.

“Dogs are always indicators that something is going on. They get nervous. Cats, not so much,” Pandolfi says.

Try to analyze what would happen to your dog that lives with you, that does not hunt, that does not go cold, that basically is used to living in an apartment with artificial light does not have too much value, you could not analyze it in the same way that you analyze a jackal or a hyena d and no way.

However, observing and sharing your pet’s behaviors can be a fun way to play scientist. In this note:

Original source in Spanish

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