This is how the total lunar eclipse will affect the behavior of dogs and cats: They might be unsettled
Animals are known to react to the sunlight disappearing during solar eclipses. But what about a lunar eclipse, when the moon darkens and then turns red?
Americans from coast to coast will have the opportunity, weather permitting, to witness an astronomical spectacle on Thursday night and into Friday morning that hasn’t been seen in three years. The Moon will not only be at its fullest during the night of 13 March and the morning of 14 March but it will pass completely through the shadow of the Earth producing a full lunar eclipse, also known as a ‘blood moon’.
Depending on where you live, the show will get underway starting a little before midnight on the East Coast and shortly before 9 pm on the West Coast. About two and a half hours later the phenomenon that gives the spectacle its name will begin, when after darkening, the full moon changes color to a coppery red color.
Nowadays it is an opportunity to catch a glimpse of the heavenly wonders that come about from the dance between our planet, the Sun and the Moon. But in the past, such events were considered auspicious omens for our ancestors, like that of a solar eclipse. The latter phenomenon is known to affect animal behaviors, but how do creatures reach to a blood moon lunar eclipse?
Celestial events can affect animal behavior
Every animal responds differently to certain celestial events. Solar eclipses perhaps have the most impact in that they turn night into day. Diurnal animals think that it is quitting time and prepare to go to sleep, while nocturnal animals think that its time to get ready to forage for the night.
Full moons, especially so called ‘supermoons’, when the Moon is at perigee, its closest to the Earth, and is thus noticeably much bigger and brighter in the sky, have been shown to have the opposite for wild birds.
Scientific research found that wild barnacle geese, which are diurnally active animals, significantly increased their body temperature and heart rate during clear nights when the full moon coincided with perigee moon. However, if there was cloud cover, the wild geese didn’t exhibit these physiological responses.
Likewise, another study found that lunar eclipses can also alter how certain animals behave. Researchers observed that the Azara’s owl monkeys of northern Argentina tend to be more active on nights when it is warmer and there is more moonlight. However, when a total lunar eclipse occurred, and their nighttime world became much darker, the monkeys’ activity was lower than even during partial lunar eclipses.
How the blood moon will affect cats and dogs
While some cats and dogs may display strange behavior depending on the lunar cycle, full moon versus new moon, as well as during eclipses, neither has been shown to greatly affect either species to a large degree. Many pet owners on forums say that their cat or dog displayed no behavior out of the normal.
Perhaps, this is because cats and dogs rarely look up at the Sun or Moon “as they typically do not have a strong biological or behavioral response to changes in light or natural phenomena like eclipses,” states PASCO scientific. Nevertheless, as far as solar eclipses go, you should still take precautions to keep your pets from looking at the sun directly, as with humans, it can cause severe damage to the retina of their eyes, and result in blindness.
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