Although the tassimeter was not a success and was never patented, Edison made an unexpected contribution to science during the eclipse. He observed that when the Moon occulted the Sun, the chickens who were loitering in the corral experienced a change in their behavior. They stopped their pecking activities, returned to the chicken coop, settled into their perches and fell asleep.
He behavior of fauna during solar eclipses It is a poorly documented phenomenon, mainly due to the brevity and infrequency of these events. Solar eclipses occur in a specific location once every several centuries, making it difficult to replicate animal experiments under similar conditions. Ron Fernández, a neuroethologist and postdoctoral fellow at the UNAM Faculty of Sciences, emphasizes the need to thoroughly study how these phenomena affect the behavior of organisms.
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Every time a solar eclipse occurs, unusual behavior is observed in fauna. Some examples include the glow of fireflies during the day, uncoordinated barking of dogs, hooting of owls, crickets chirping outside of their nighttime hours, and an increase in mosquito activity. This is due to the disruption of the circadian cycle, an internal clock that regulates biological rhythms in a 24-hour period.
The sudden transition from light to dark during an eclipse can disorient creatures, activate nocturnal creatures, and lull diurnal creatures to sleep..