Animals get stressed during eclipses. But not for the reason you think

APRIL 25, 2024 5:00 AM ET
Kathryn Fink

Biologist Adam Hartstone-Rose had one big question on his mind heading into this month's solar eclipse: Why are animals so stressed out during totality?

On April 8, as the moon crossed in front of the afternoon sun and plunged the area into sudden darkness, he and a team of researchers, zookeepers and high school students observed nearly three dozen different species at the Fort Worth Zoo in Texas. Hartstone-Rose says the animals were considerably less stressed than those he observed during a solar eclipse seven years ago — and thanks to "groundbreaking" preliminary data, he has an explanation.

'Quite dramatic behavior'
In 2017, Hartstone-Rose, a biology professor at North Carolina State University, organized a study of animal behavior during the total solar eclipse at Riverbanks Zoo & Garden in Columbia, South Carolina. He says he was not enthusiastic about eclipses until he discovered how little researchers knew about animal behavior during them. Scientists had not attempted a study of this scale since 1932.

Hartstone-Rose says his team observed "quite dramatic behavior" during totality in 2017. Giraffes stampeded. Galapagos tortoises began mating. Gibbons made an unusual calling sound. What intrigued him most was not the eccentric behaviors themselves, but why they were occurring.

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