The Granby Zoo studied animal behavior during last week's total solar eclipse

As darkness fell during last week's total solar eclipse, Japanese macaques turned toward the sun and red-crowned cranes were unusually quiet.

But the Himalayan black bears slept as if nothing had happened.

The Quebec Zoo took advantage of last Monday's total solar eclipse to study the behavior of some animals. The zoo's research and conservation department was approached by a professor of astrophysics at the Université du Québec à Montréal about participating in a study of animal behavior and collecting data on how they behaved during the rare event.

Granby Zoo is located in the province's Estrie region, which had one of the best views of the rare total solar eclipse in southern Quebec. Although people are shocked, little research has been done on the reactions of animals during the rare event.

Chelsea Paquette, conservation coordinator at Granby Zoo, 65 kilometers east of Montreal, said the zoo jumped at the chance to participate. A study will be published to present the results.

“The takeaway from this is that light has an effect on animals, and whatever data we find, the findings we get from zoo species can be extrapolated to wild species,” Paquette said.

“This is a rare event, so it's very special to collect data during a rare event to better understand how light in the presence of the sun affects animals.”

Observers recorded the animals' behavior on two days of the week leading up to the eclipse, from 14:00 to 17:00 during the event and for two more days in the following week.

The reactions they saw were mixed.

For example, Japanese macaques, a type of monkey that lives in Japan, reacted to the eclipse in a way that the researchers expected.

“We expected them to be agitated and want to group together, for example, to go to their nocturnal habitats,” Paquette said. “But during a total eclipse, they seemed to stop vocalizing, they stopped all movement, and they turned their backs to the sun and were just Zen and quiet.”

Red-crowned cranes are usually very vocal, but were quiet during the eclipse, Paquette said.

The male red panda spent most of the day walking around his enclosure during the day, but as soon as the eclipse began, he climbed a tree and slept with the female the entire time, which he said was unusual.

The pack was assigned to Himalayan black bears.

“We thought they would move to their nocturnal habitat when the sun was completely covered, which was what it looked like at night,” Paquette said. “But the bears continued to sleep in the afternoon and seemed unaffected by the eclipse.”

Tahrs, ungulates that belong to goats and sheep, usually rest quietly in the afternoon, and half of those in zoos usually lie down.

“But during the eclipse, 100 percent of these animals were up and they were walking around, so it was a drastic change for them,” Paquette said.

The zoo tried to collect data on a wide range of species, including some that are normally active during the day and others that tend to be nocturnal. One observation was that carnivore species had a stronger response to the eclipse than prey species, Paquette said.

“What's interesting is that we were able to make these little observations,” Paquette said.