TOLEDO, Ohio —
Millions of people will look to the sky to see the total solar eclipse on Monday. People should prepare and have eclipse glasses to protect their eyes, but what about animals?
Beth Posta, curator of behavioral husbandry and well-being for the Toledo Zoo, said staff is not worried about animals looking at the sun.
"They don't typically do that in the first place," she said. "I think they'll just go about whatever business they're going to be going about."
The zoo is interested in monitoring the animals' behavior, though, as there aren't many opportunities to see changes during an eclipse.
"We could see that they look at the sun going away as mimicking what happens at night and they may just go through their normal nighttime routine where they may start going toward doors to go in for the evening," Posta said. "Birds might start roosting. Animals might start going underground if that's what they would normally do."
Posta said it's possible the animals might show some anxiety over the eclipse, too. The zoo has a training program to try and make the animals resilient to changes in their environment, like the eclipse.
"When there is something different, there is a change in their environment, they have the skills to cope with it and to deal with that change and to understand that it's not really anything that they need to get stressed about, that they can work through it," Posta said.
The zoo is planning on collecting data before, during and after the eclipse to see if there are any changes. Posta said collecting data on how the animals are spending the day and using enrichment is part of the zoo's normal operations to have a baseline on different behaviors.
On the day of the eclipse, zookeepers will be monitoring different enclosures to see how animals react. Some of the animals that will be monitored are brown bears, tigers and cougars.
Visitors to the zoo on the day of the eclipse can participate in the data collection. Posta said visitors are encouraged to make observations of animal behavior as the sky goes dark, and the zoo will use them when compiling all of the data.
Livestreams of the enclosures will be on the zoo's website and people can submit observations online.
The zoo will have animal exhibits, bounce houses and music on the day of the eclipse. The zoo will also pass out free glasses to visitors while supplies last.