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Did you catch the lunar eclipse early this morning? Visible from much of North America, the moon was covered by the Earth’s blood-red shadow in an event called the Super Blood Moon lunar eclipse. A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon, Earth and sun are very closely aligned, with the Earth positioned between the two. These lunar events usually occur two to three times a year. Lunar eclipses have been rumored to affect human behavior, although there isn’t a lot of solid research on that phenomenon. Though, these events have been documented to impact non-human animal behavior. Many animals depend on the moon and sun’s rhythmic light-dark cycle. In fact, a study in 2010 discovered that Azara’s owl monkeys – a typically nocturnal species – stopped foraging in Argentina during a lunar eclipse as their world became suddenly darker. In Zimbabwe hippos have been observed leaving their rivers during an eclipse, to head towards their nocturnal feeding grounds on dry land.
It is really quite amazing that we have total eclipses at all. The moon is at exactly the right distance from the earth to appear to be about the size of the sun, so it can completely block the light. The moon is moving farther away from the earth though, (about an inch and a half every year) so full eclipses aren’t a permanent fixture of life on Earth. Right now we can feel the awe of witnessing this phenomena and connecting with our fellow Earthlings – monkeys, hippos and our fellow humans – in witnessing it from our blue planet.