Man’s best friend and our feline pets may exhibit strange behavior during the April 8 solar eclipse, and experts warn there are some signs to look out for.
The path of totality stretches from Maine to Texas, and during the 3.5 to four minutes of darkness, your pets may become confused and think it’s time to go to bed.
Your dog may also react to the solar eclipse by showing signs of anxiety, such as pacing, scratching and howling – similar to how he reacts to a thunderstorm or fireworks.
The full reason why animals exhibit unusual behavior during solar eclipses is still not fully understood, but scientists have theorized that pets respond to natural light dimming and temperatures dropping when the sun is blocked by the moon.
Pets may exhibit anxious or confused behavior and may show signs of thinking it is time for bed when the solar eclipse occurs on April 8
The eclipse will occur along the path of totality stretching between Maine and Texas
The solar eclipse could disrupt animals’ circadian rhythms: the 24-hour biological clock that tells people or animals it’s time to wake up or time to go to bed.
“Most animals respond to (the dimming of the light by the eclipse) in a way that says, ‘Okay, it’s time to sit down and rest and go to sleep.’ Dr. Bryan Pijanowski, a professor of forestry and natural resources at Purdue University, said CNN.
He continued, “…And then there are the nocturnal animals who suddenly say, ‘Oh, it’s time for me to wake up and get active.’
During Monday’s solar eclipse, the moon will be directly in front of the sun, plunging millions of people in the US into darkness.
While people flock to the best viewing spots and express their excitement about the coming phenomenon, your furry friend may be less enthusiastic.
Some dogs may start to howl and show signs of distress, such as pacing, panting and scratching.
You can help your dog calm down by staying calm, which can make your dog less anxious because he tends to mimic his human’s behavior, according to the Dog magazine.
This could be the “more worrisome” response for pet owners, because the anxiety behavior would be similar to how a dog reacts to thunder, vet visits or fireworks, Erica Cartmill, a professor of anthropology, animal behavior and cognitive sciences at Indiana University, told me. PEOPLE.
But for cats, especially those indoors, and some dogs, Cartmill said it’s more likely that they just think it’s nighttime and start exhibiting the same behavior they would exhibit before going to bed.
“The most likely response is for animals to start their evening routine and exhibit evening behavior,” Cartmill told the outlet.
“If you have a dog or cat, they might go to bed, become quieter, or yawn and stretch.”
She added: A solar eclipse is “like dropping a little bit of night into the middle of the day. So maybe they’re pretending it’s nighttime.’
NASA hopes to discover how animals respond to a solar eclipse during the April event through a citizen science project called Eclipse Soundscapes.
Viewers of the event participate by recording data, analyzing audio and submitting their wildlife observations.
Scientists have previously noticed animals behaving strangely during both lunar and solar eclipses, including whales and dolphins swimming to the surface of the water, giraffes gathering and running in a run, Galápagos tortoises beginning to mate, and llamas gathering in a group collect.
“They did a lot of research in 2017 when we had a solar eclipse in a number of zoos in America, and some of the animals were affected,” said Steven Greene, the director of Lubbock Animal Services. KCBD News.
Scientists studied animal behavior during the last solar eclipse in 2017 to better understand why they exhibit unusual behavior when the moon blocks the sun
Up to one million people are planned for Texas, 500,000 in Indiana and Ohio and almost 400,000 people could travel to New York
Reports of unusual animal behavior during eclipses have been reported for decades, dating back to 1851, when a swarm of ants with food stopped moving until the sun rose again in Sweden.
Another report of cockroaches infesting a pantry in Massachusetts during the 1932 solar eclipse, while reports of spiders tearing off their webs surfaced during the 1991 solar eclipse in Mexico.
In 2017, researchers at North Carolina State University conducted a study study about how the animals at the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, South Carolina responded to the solar eclipse.
‘A total solar eclipse occurs at any point on Earth once every 375 years. So it’s not like you’re learning something new that you can use again in the future, and that certainly applies to animals,” said Adam Hartstone-Rose, who led the study. The Washington Post.
‘But it is a connecting event. We are all in this experience together,” he said, adding that during the April 8 solar eclipse, we will all interact with animals and reflect on how they experience it.”
Hartstone-Rose will conduct another study at the Fort Worth Zoo in Texas during this year’s solar eclipse, using more than 1,000 volunteers across the US to record animal behavior through the Solar Eclipse Safari Project.
The eclipse will be visible between 2:27 PM and 3:35 PM EST in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, but according Astronomy.comskygazers in Texas have the best view.