Like so many others who enjoy such events, I kept an eye on this week’s lunar eclipse. We missed the beginnings but when we first checked, the eclipse was in full swing with the moon hidden behind our shadow. Stars shone in the sky. Some clouds were about.
And interestingly the frogs, singing so vigorously on previous nights, were mysteriously silent. Even on cloudy nights during the full moon it can be quite light. Did the peepers and other singing amphibians take note of the eclipse too and react accordingly? Some may think this far-fetched but in a world where dung beetles navigate by the Milky Way it’s not so strange.
There was a study done on the effects of a lunar eclipse on salamander larvae. It found the larvae rise to the surface of the water in response to the rapid decrease in light that is found during a lunar eclipse. As written in an article for Behavioral Ecology, “The larvae of the marbled salamander (Ambystoma opacum) rise to the surface of the water in response to rapid decreases in illumination such as that seen at a lunar eclipse (Hassinger and Anderson 1970). This may be a response to prey availability, as many species of plankton (on which larvae feed) are known to move vertically upward in response to decreases in lunar illumination (Alldredge and King 1980; Gliwicz 1986). However, other reasons for the behavior cannot be ruled out.”
A 2010 study found the nocturnal Azara’s owl monkeys stopped foraging during a lunar eclipse. In another study, mosquito activity during a 1989 lunar eclipse shifted during the eclipse. Bats, barred and saw-whet owls, geckos, black swifts, lemurs…all have been observed with altered behaviors during lunar eclipses. They don’t act unnaturally. But they do act differently when the moon is in eclipse compared to when it is not.
Although we rarely give other animals credit for even such basic survival intelligence, these studies show awareness of one’s surroundings is part of who we are as Earthlings whether that cognitively aware being is the smallest mosquito or one of our simian relatives. And when the moon or the light it sheds acts differently, our behaviors shift.
Next lunar eclipse I’ll try to remember to research how plants respond to such events. If anyone does, wouldn’t such light-sensitive beings as they?
There is one animal whose behavior is certainly impacted by lunar eclipses. The human being tends to react strongly to these, many emerging from their dens to peer at the darkened moon through various contraptions followed by a series of exasperated groans as whatever they see through those tools fails to match the magic of the real thing. It’s easy to get caught up trying to capture the experience rather than living it.
But technology is a poor substitute for wild magic. The starry skies. The strangely silent wetlands. The invigorating chill of the air. None of that can be found in a photograph. Especially in the plethora of red-white blobs I have on my camera's memory card from that night. I did manage one clear photograph of the eclipse, but the wildness isn't captured. And it never should be.
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