What are the strange behaviors of animals before eclipses

This year you can see different eclipsesthe National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa, for its acronym in English) predicts that on April 8 and October 14 of this year at least two of these phenomena will be recorded. In these types of events animals are affected by changes there is in the sky, the absence of light causes its behavior to be different from that of an “ordinary day”.

Steve Portugal, eco physiologist and professor of animal biology and physiology at Royal Hollowayexplained in his article for The conversation that most animals structure their day according to cycles of light and dark, which are regular and rhythmic.

“The bone animals can tell all of this by the number of hours of daylight they experiencebut the cycles of the moon also strongly influence its behavior, ”detailed the British university.

The professor explained that the effect generated by solar eclipses affects the behavior of certain arachnids, who begin to break their webs as soon as they notice that there is no light outside.

Although this action is carried out every day, before night falls, the eclipse forces them to “work” twice, since once the phenomenon is over they start to create their web again.

Steve Portugal also explained that the hippos from Zimbabwe were recruited coming out of the rivers during a solar eclipse go to their feeding grounds.

The academic explained that when the moon coincides with perigee (the point at which the moon is closest to Earth) light levels are about 30% brighter, this effect causes changes in animals such as barnacle geese, which alter their behavior.

“We discovered that heart rate and body temperature of geese increased during the night of the ‘super moons’, when at this time they would normally be extinguished, ”explained the academic.

Portugal explained that these animals did not react when this natural satellite was hidden by a large cloud and the night remained quite dark, so they concluded that bright light was the cause of these effects.

The biology professor explained that for centuries the moon was believed to influence human behavior and generate changes in birth rate, fertility, cause epilepsy among other beliefs, no However, Portugal explained that no evidence has been found to prove this..

Contrary to this aspect, the professor from the University of London pointed out that this type of phenomenon generates very real confusion in wild animals, which is why his investigation should be thorough.

Andrew Fazekas, journalist for the magazine National geographicexplained that testimonies of changes in animal behavior go back centuries, one of the first was made in June 1239 by the Italian monk Ristoro d’Arezzo.

Solar eclipses are the ones that have the most impact on animals, due to the absence of light. “All the animals and the birds were terrified; and wild beasts could easily catch them,” the Italian monk wrote in his report.

Fazekas explained that throughout history very picturesque scenes have been described when an eclipse occurs, which has been difficult to confirm, but modern astronomers have assured that both wild and domestic animals have very obvious reactions to eclipses.

KEEP READING: