Purdue University Researching Animals’ Reaction To Eclipse

Purdue researchers want to find out how animals react to a solar eclipse. And Indiana Public Broadcasting’s Jill Sheridan reports they’re looking for the public to help.

A call for citizen scientists to record the sounds that animals do or don’t make during the eclipse provides a chance to better understand wildlife says Purdue Professor Bryan Pijanowski.

“Are the nighttime animals going to start singing?  And then the daytime animals, like the cardinals that we hear all day long or even the cicadas, will they stop?”

The university sent censors to museums, zoos and parks around the country to record animal sound.  Pijanowski says even though a total eclipse won’t happen in Indiana, animals’ circadian rhythms could be affected.

“You know it could be a dawn chorus, it could elicit an early morning in the animal community, we have lots of questions.”

Purdue is making available to anyone an app – Record the Earth – that can analyze the sound in real time.

“Even how do the humans sound, are we stopping our cars?  Are we no longer driving?  Are we silent because we are just in awe of what is happening?”