How do animals react during a total solar eclipse? Scientists plan to find out in April

Visitors watch a gorilla family at the Fort Worth Zoo. Researchers will observe how animals’ routines at the Texas zoo are disrupted when skies dim during a solar eclipse next month. This year’s full solar eclipse in North America crisscrosses a different route than in 2017 and occurs in a different season, giving researchers and citizen scientists opportunities to observe new habits. “During a solar eclipse, there’s a conflict between their internal rhythms and external environment,” said University of Alberta’s Olav Rueppell, adding that bees rely on polarized light from the sun to navigate. Nate Bickford, an animal researcher at the Oregon Institute of Technology, said that “solar eclipses actually mimic short, fast-moving storms,” when skies darken and many animals take shelter.