1. What is a Solar Eclipse?
A solar eclipse happens when the moon’s and the sun’s path in the sky coincide. This leads to the moon blocking some or all of the sun’s light, leading to multiple phenomena.
There are multiple types of solar eclipses: Partial, in which the moon only partially blocks the sun, Annular, in which the moon would fully block the sun, except it is in a farther out spot in its orbit, so it only block the center, leaving what looks like a ring of fire in the sky, and Total, in which the moon fully blocks the sun, letting us see its corona, the outermost part of its atmosphere, which is usually hidden by its bright light. Of course, all of this is only possible because of a pretty amazing celestial coincidence: The sun is about 400 times bigger than the moon, and the moon is 400 times closer to us than the sun. If the moon was farther out, it would never look big enough to cover the whole sun, and we would have, at most, annular eclipses. And if it was closer, we would never have annular eclipses, as it would never look small enough for them. Instead, they would either be partial or total. And the coincidence isn’t just in the spacing of these objects, but also in our timing: the Moon is moving away from the Earth at a current rate of about 3 cm/year. That means that some 1.6 billion years ago there were no Annular Solar Eclipses, and, within some 620 million years, there will be a last Total Solar Eclipse. What a time to be alive!
2. What made this one so special?
The most important thing about the April 8th Eclipse was its path. It was total, and the path of totality crossed the whole of North America, from Western Mexico, moving Northeast through the USA, and ending in eastern Canada. Totality was visible for up to 4 minutes, depending on your location!
3. The Research
Now we know some things about Solar Eclipses, time to discuss the research. The purpose of our study, named Solar Eclipse Safari, also known as Solar Max, was to find out more about animal’s reactions to a total solar eclipse. There has only been one study on the same subject before, amd this would be a chance to confirm a hypothesis: the reason some animals were anxious in the last study was because humanity was having the weirdest reaction of animal: There was clapping, shouting, some people even set off fireworks! Of course animals would be distressed; who wouldn’t in such conditions?
So, we divided up. Each person or pair got an animal to observe, and we did. I got the Red Kangaroo, specifically, two female specimens, one named Erika Jane, and the other named Reece. Reece was also special, because she had some back issues, so she barely moved, and spent all her time laying around.
4. Baseline observations
Naturally, to know what changed, you need to know what is normal, so on the day before the eclipse, we went to the zoo and made baseline observations. I do have the sheet, but I think it will be easier if I paste my ad libidum notes. Here they are:
10: 46 Erika Jane starts jumping around quickly,
10: 48 Erika Jane jumps over Reece, turns back around and seems to kind of hit Reece on the head lightly, then paces around the enclosure once and then jumps right around Reece.
10:50 Erika Jane stops pacing, but is much farther away, on the other side of the enclosure, and on the back legs. Erika Jane seems to be looking for something (maybe bird sounds? Erika Jane seems to be looking around on spot of the enclosure closest to some very loud bird screeches)
10:56 Erika starts pacing again briefly goes on a fast lap around the enclosure, around Reece and back to where she started. Reece seems unaffected. Erika Jane stays vigilant.
10:58 some children arrive and start making noise, Erika Jane paces towards then very quickly, and stands up fully upright in the spot between them and Reece. Reece is unaffected.
10:59 children leave and stop making noise, Erika Jane goes back to the other side of the enclosure, stays for a while, then paces back to near Reece. Seems to be very vigilant over Reece.
11:00 Erika Jane has her back to reece and is facing the inside of the enclosure, but keeps glancing backward. Seems like vigilante behavior.
11:04 Erika Jane stops vigilante behavior for a second, then goes back to it, runs over, around Reece, and goes back to the same spot
11:07 Erika Jane moves over closer to Reece, defecate one bead, then moves back to its spot, then rapidly runs over, gets fully erect very briefly, then goes back to pacing around.
11:08 Erika Jane stops pacing, and stops on her spot
11:10 Erika Jane moves rapidly towards her enclosure door and stays there, standing and staring at me. Then looks at Reece, then gets fully erect and goes back to staring at me. Then goes back to her spot
11:14 in her spot in the middle of the enclosure, Erika Jane stands straight up, then stands down
11:15 I leave for lunch
These are my baseline observations. As you can see, most of the activity is from Erika Jane; Reece did not do much. Based on that and the fact there weren’t any observations on kangaroos in the only other study of this subject, I couldn’t really make any predictions, so my hypothesis was that the behavior wouldn’t change.
5. During the eclipse
Once again, I do have the sheets for this data, but it is easier if I put in the ad libidum notes. It has all the info on the sheets, and more.
12:42 both laying down silently in front of barn door
12:43 Erika Jane starts looking around rapidly, while still laying down. Clouds stop covering sun as much, thus the eclipse is visible now
12:50 Reece starts looking around slightly
12:54 people arrive, are noisy, Erika Jane stands up fully erect
12:55 Erika Jane jumps around a bit, stops, stares at me a bit
12:56 Erika Jane lowers a but, then stands back up. Reece is completely unaffected, except she turns her head a bit towards me too. Erika Jane hops over to Reece and starts looking around, while fully erect on her back.
13:00 Erika Jane turns around, lowers onto normal standing up. Keeps looking around
13:01 Erika Jane turns around, standing while not fully erect, then straightens its back. Still looking around.
13:03 Erika Jane starts hopping around, stops, comes back, then stares at me and Luke, and then gets back to hopping
13:04 Erika Jane still hopping, then looks around
13:07 Reece stands up walks a bit
13:11 Reece lays down on the side
13:12 Erika Jane starts foraging and eating
13:14 people walk in, Erika Jane hops around a little, keeps foraging
13:15 Erika Jane stops foraging, keeps looking around, then gets back to foraging
13:16 people walk in, Erika Jane’s stops, gets closer to Reece, stands up fully erect, keeps track of the people who just entered with her eyes
13:17 people walk in, Erika Jane hops a bunch, then gets back to standing in front of Reece
13:19 people walk in, Erika Jane hops a bunch, then gets back to standing in front of Reece.
13:20 no one here except me, Erika Jane is standing a bit farther from Reece, staring at me. Then a big group walks in, Erika Jane moves a little bit closer to Reece and stares at her. Reece is unaffected
13: 21 Erika Jane gets back to staring at me, then hops on a lap around the enclosure, then gets back in front of Reece and stands up. Then hops around to behind the barn. After, she hops a lap around Reece.
13:28 child starts crying, Erika Jane is standing still, Reece is laying down, but her ears twitch a bit.
13:29 child stops crying, Reece stands up, starts looking around. Clouds cover the sun. Reece starts moving slowly
13: 32 eclipse covered by clouds, Reece hops over far into the enclosure, in the shade. Erika Jane follows. They are standing, and super close together, like cuddling
13:34 exact same. Clouds open up and eclipse is visible for a second, but then it’s covered again
13:36 exact same, still covered
Scattered clouds though
13:38 exact same clouds are still scattered
13:39 still kind of snuggling, and hidden in the dark
13:40 exact same
13:41 kangaroos are hidden, fireworks happen, literally can’t see them
13:42 Totality, people freak out, a baby is crying
13:43 sometime during totality, kangaroos move over to the center of the pen. They’re both standing
13:48 Reece is on all 4rs, looking around, while Erika Jane is on its hind legs, also looking around. They both seem anxious or confused
13:50 Reece moves a little bit and eats some, while Erika Jane is still looking around and standing still
13:52 after eclipse, Reece is much more active
13:57 Reece is looking around and foraging, Erika Jane hops on over to Reece and stops in front of Reece. It stands up fully erect, then gets back down to all 4rs
14:16 hops over to behind barn, standing still, in shade
14:17 hops back, and starts hopping and stopping
14:21 Reece lays down again, Erika Jane is moving around, then stops and stands up.
14:25 Reece starts grooming, does it for a few seconds, then stops. Lays down in the grass. Erika Jane is moving slowly around, in seemingly random directions.
14:28 Erika Jane starts moving around quickly, Reece stands up and stands still, then starts foraging and eating.
14:32 Erika Jane hops over to shade, stays for a while, starts foraging
14:34 Erika Jane hops back, Reece still eating
14:35 both are foraging and eating and seem pretty calm. Also, almost no one has come in or left for the past 10 minutes
14:36 Erika Jane starts moving like it did before eclipse.
14:38 Erika Jane lays down on her side. Meanwhile, Reece is still foraging and eating
Also, people walk in. They’re loud and with children, but both kangaroos are unaffected
14:40 Erika Jane turns over from laying down on her side to on her back and starts grooming
14:41 Erika Jane stands up, starts walking around
6. Conclusion and summary
In conclusion, I have no idea what happened, but I think that they reacted to the Eclipse. This definitely taught me a lot about the scientific process, and really drilled it into me what it will be like if I pursue my dream: scientific research. This was my first time doing actual scientific research, but I loved it and really want to make this into a career.
- Describe a solar eclipse. Include a labeled diagram.
- Describe the path of the solar eclipse – 04-08-2024
- Identify & describe the animal you will be observing during the solar eclipse
- Record your baseline observational data while at the Zoo on April 7th
- Record your predictions as to how the animals behaviour will change
- Record your observations (pictures & videos) during the event at the Zoo on April 8th
- Summarize your results. What did you observe & learn? What are your conclusions?