SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Zoo released some video clips showing how animals reacted during Monday’s solar eclipse.
The zoo was just outside the path of totality. Still, about 99.9% of the sun was blocked by the moon.
Zoo officials said the meerkats ran through their habitat in one large group while the whooping cranes “danced” and the flamingos bunched in a cluster.
While those activities aren’t uncommon for the animals, they were performed in a different context than usual.
Meerkats are highly social animals that stick together. They usually hunt during the day and retreat to their underground burrows at night to rest and avoid nocturnal predators. Zoo officials said the meerkats approached and entered their indoor habitat space a few minutes before totality, which is something they would typically do in the evening. The behavior “supported our working hypothesis that diurnal animals, meaning those awake during the day, would display their typical evening activity patterns during totality,” zoo officials said.
“While it’s possible some of this behavior may have been coincidental, this certainly caused a difference in the typical day for all of us - humans and animals!” said Cyle Perez, director of public relations.
Zoos across the country were excited to study animals’ behavior on Monday. Researchers have found that many animals display behaviors connected with an early dusk.
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