Columbus zoo studying animal behavior during solar eclipse 2024 - The Columbus Dispatch

The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium hosted more than 7,000 guests Monday for its "Solar-Bration."

But while guests, and humans across Ohio, were looking up at the sky Monday, some researchers at the Columbus Zoo were looking at the animals and watching how they reacted to the solar eclipse — if they reacted at all.

As the eclipse neared totality and the sky grew dark, many of the animals in the study thought it was nighttime and simply went to sleep, observers told The Dispatch. Some elephants chirped, and the red-crowned cranes went unusually quiet.

It was a unique opportunity to study the zoo's animals during an eclipse, which only happens every hundred years, Tom Schmid, president and CEO of Columbus Zoo and Aquarium said.

"This is actually pretty big for us because, to our knowledge, there's not a lot of research and not a lot known out there," said Shannon Borders, curator of the Heart of Africa at the Columbus Zoo. "The knowledge we gain here can only help animals at other zoos and other institutions."

The Ohio State University School of Environment and Natural Resources teamed up with the Columbus Zoo's observation interns to document the behavior of animals selected for the study every afternoon for two weeks and will do so for two more weeks. This way, they can compare their behaviors.

How did the animals react during the eclipse?

A hush did not fall over the crowd at the Columbus Zoo Monday as the solar eclipse reached totality. Children jumped, danced, clapped and cheered as the world went as dark as night and the hot day turned cool. Researchers said it could be difficult to parse in some cases if animals were reacting to the eclipse or to people making noise.

How did the animals behave around and during the solar eclipse?

The sloth bear, red pandas, tufted deer, reindeer and ostriches all took naps.

"It was very cute because the girls (the ostriches) literally stopped what they were doing and headed to the back as if they were going to bed," Borders said. "About seven minutes afterward, it started to lighten back up a little bit, and they all stood up, and they started grooming as though they were preparing for the day."

Abby Thiemkey, who was observing the cougar, said the large cat slept through most of the eclipse, but during totality, when it got very dark, the cougar became alert and looked toward the sun.

The most exciting reaction perhaps came from some of the zoo's elephants who let out chirping sounds and a trumpet. One started thumping her trunk during the darkness.

"Sonny and Rudy are sisters, and when they get excited, they like to be close to each other, and they like to touch each other," said Adam Felts, director of animal wellbeing at the Columbus Zoo. "One of the cutest things was they were surrounding Sabu (the herd's male elephant), and their tails were still in contact with each other, just making sure they were both OK. It was pretty cute to watch."

While the elephants were making more noise than usual, the red-crowned cranes went completely silent and began running around.

"Which is unusual for them because they were vocalizing all day long. I'd been there since about 12 (noon), and they had been nonstop chirping," Emma Blanton said.

The official research won't be released for weeks or months; it will take a while to collect more data on the animals and then to make comparisons.

Other animals that were part of the study include polar bears, brown bears, manatees and kangaroos.

How the research was conducted

"I think one of the coolest things about it is trying to get in the head of the animals," said Courtney Anderson, a doctoral student in the School of Environment and Natural Resources at Ohio State University. "When we were making our species list and trying to decide which animals we were going to focus on, we kind of had to think about it from their perspective and how a bear might perceive an eclipse and why that might be important versus an ostrich."

Anderson said they picked a mix of animals to study from different regions around the world. 

During observation periods, particularly during the eclipse, observers write down every 15 seconds what the animal is doing, like eating, walking, sniffing, sleeping, etc.

Anderson told The Dispatch early Monday she and the other researchers would not totally miss out on the eclipse as long as they peeked during 14-second windows. 

"We're going to make 14-second intervals. As long as we take a data point every 15 seconds, we have time in between that we can (look up)," Anderson said.

Check out:The Dispatch's live coverage of the solar eclipse in Ohio

jlaird@dispatch.com

@LairdWrites