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Bees Stop Flying During Total Solar Eclipses (smithsonianmag.com)
A new study published by the Entomological Society of America found that bees stop flying when the moon obstructs the sun during a total solar eclipse. "Using tiny microphones suspended among flowers, the team recorded the buzzing of the bees through all stages of the eclipse," reports Smithsonian Magazine. "The bees were active and noisy right up to the last moments before totality, the part of a total solar eclipse when the moon blocks all direct sunlight, and a night-like darkness settles over the land. As totality hit, the bees went totally silent in unison." From the report: The clear drop from buzzing to silence was the most striking change during the eclipse, but additional, smaller changes in the bees' buzzing could give the researchers clues about how the insects responded. As ecologist Candace Galen of the University of Missouri notes, the bees' buzzes lasted longer as it gradually got darker approaching totality. Increased buzz length suggests the bees started flying more slowly, they were taking longer flights, or some combination of both.
"The way I think about it is, if you're driving on a road and it gets foggy, you slow down," explains Galen. When there is less visibility, slowing down helps you process information and maintain situational awareness -- and like the bees did during totality, if there's absolutely zero visibility, you should probably pull over. Adjusting speed to acclimate one's senses to an environment that suddenly shifts is a common behavior in many animals, and it's been observed in bees when they fly before sunrise or sunset.
"The way I think about it is, if you're driving on a road and it gets foggy, you slow down," explains Galen. When there is less visibility, slowing down helps you process information and maintain situational awareness -- and like the bees did during totality, if there's absolutely zero visibility, you should probably pull over. Adjusting speed to acclimate one's senses to an environment that suddenly shifts is a common behavior in many animals, and it's been observed in bees when they fly before sunrise or sunset.
All wildlife doesn't seem to cope with a total solar eclipse. We saw some really strange things during the last one. Firstly there was dead silence. Birds stopped flying, they actually stopped making sound completely. Also kangaroos were freaked out. They congregated in a common area and huddled together. I've not seen anything quite like it.
... as bees use polarized light for navigation that may be the key.....Read Randolf Menzel
I saw the 2017 eclipse from my uncle's farm, and it was definitely worth the trouble (and the traffic afterwards) -- not ten minutes after it was over, we (other family gathered there) were already excited for 2024! Definitely an unearthly experience, and being on a farm, I got to see lots of animals reacting to the eclipse (as well as being awed myself, even though I knew it was coming -- I can only imagine how it must have felt to people who didn't know what was happening).
All the chickens ran into the coop, and when the eclipse was over, the rooster crowed.
All the gnats went to ground, which was very nice because I'd been swatting them all afternoon leading up to the eclipse (and would have been very cross if one had distracted me during totality).
My uncle had been worried that his goats might freak out, because they didn't like being left outside for too long after sunset, but they didn't seem concerned (maybe it was short enough that they didn't regard it as 'night time' the way the other critters did).
By far the funniest reaction was that of a neighboring farmer (as my aunt explained it to me), who was frantically asking for pairs of eclipse glasses for all of her animals -- "What if they look at the sun???" Fortunately, my aunt managed to explain to her that the animals would be okay -- us humans were the only critters dumb enough to look at the sun while it was out!