Hunting

• The total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, coincides with an exciting time for wild birds.
• Local birds are singing for mates and fighting for territories as they gear up for their once-a-year chance to breed.
• Tens of millions of migrating birds will be passing through the path of totality, and they mostly migrate at night.

There’s an app for that

On average, a total solar eclipse occurs in the same place only once every 375 years. Most wild animals, like most people, have never seen the sky quickly switch to night in the middle of the day. These rare events are a natural experiment that can help scientists like us understand how animals respond to an unusual sudden change in light.

• Observers have reported that zoo animals acted distressed or went into their enclosures.
• With collaborators across our campus – including Jo Anne Tracey at the Office of Science Outreach and Paul Macklin at Indiana University’s Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering – we have created an app called SolarBird.
• The app asks participants to find a bird and watch it or listen to it for 30 seconds, while clicking a few prompts on what the bird does before, during and after totality.

Technology and bird behavior

• For example, during the August 2017 solar eclipse, researchers collected data from weather stations across the United States, including several sites along the path of totality.
• The team saw some changes in activity – mainly, the birds didn’t follow their typical daytime activity patterns as much, but they saw no consistent increase in night-like activity.
• Because they used radar, it’s not clear exactly which bird behaviors increased or decreased.
• Bird songs generally convey two critical messages: “keep away” to a rival and “come here” to a prospective mate.

• Software advances help to automate the process of identifying bird songs by species with less work on the human end.
• We started recording the last week of March to collect song rates at a typical dawn and a typical dusk.
• For example, artificial light at night can affect bird physiology, behavior and abundance, and the total solar eclipse gives us a new way to test how light pollution affects behavior.

Kimberly Rosvall receives funding from the National Science Foundation. Liz Aguilar receives funding from the National Science Foundation and Indiana Space Grant Consortium.

• One man mentioned a black-winged storm bird known as “manumanunicagi” that glides above the land only when a cyclone is forming out to sea.
• As the conversation continued, residents named at least 11 bird species, the odd behaviour of which signalled imminent changes in the weather.
• We reviewed evidence on traditional knowledge in the Pacific for coping with climate change, and found much of it was scientifically plausible.

A proven, robust system

• People have inhabited the Pacific Islands for 3,000  years or more and have experienced many climate-driven challenges to their livelihoods and survival.
• They have coped not by luck but by design – through robust systems of traditional knowledge built by diverse groups of people over time.
• Traditional knowledge in the Pacific explains the causes and manifestations of natural phenomena, and identifies the best ways to respond.

Reading the ocean and sky

• In Vanuatu’s Torres Islands, 13 phrases exist to describe the state of the tide, including anomalies that herald uncommon events.
• Distant storms can drive ocean swells onto coasts long before the winds and rain arrive, changing the usual patterns of waves.
• Winds that blow from the east (matā ‘upolu) indicate the imminent arrival of heavy rain, possibly a tropical cyclone.
• Many Pacific Island communities believe a cloudless, dark blue sky signals the arrival of a tropical cyclone.

The wisdom of animals and plants

• In Tonga, when the frigate bird flies across the land – unusual behaviour for an ocean species – it signals a tropical cyclone is developing.
• Another study, which included data on frigate birds in the Pacific, found seabirds appeared to circumvent cyclones, probably by sensing wind strength and direction.

• Traditional knowledge about insect behaviour in the Pacific Islands is also used to predict wet weather.
• Across the Pacific, common signs of impending wet weather are found in the behaviours of some plants.
• This can be explained scientifically by a process in which plant leaves close to protect their reproductive organs from extreme weather.

Planning for a warmer future

• This is true of the Pacific Islands, where in some places, traditional knowledge is all but forgotten.
• As climate change impacts worsen, optimal planning for island peoples should combine both approaches.

Patrick D. Nunn receives funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) via the Australia Pacific Climate Partnership (APCP), the Australian Research Council, and the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research. Roselyn Kumar receives funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) via the Australia Pacific Climate Partnership (APCP)

• DETROIT, March 11, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Southeast Michigan Resilience Fund partners today announced $1.5 million in grant funding to five projects that will benefit communities and wildlife habitats in southeast Michigan.
• “The Southeast Michigan Resilience Fund is prioritizing grantmaking where the needs of communities and nature meet,” said Jeff Trandahl, executive director and CEO of NFWF.
• Since 2018, the Southeast Michigan Resilience Fund has awarded 39 grants totaling more than $9.2 million, leveraging an additional $11.5 million in matching contributions to generate a total conservation investment of more than $20.7 million.
• To learn more about the Southeast Michigan Resilience Fund and the projects announced today, please visit nfwf.org/semichigan .

• Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) and Animal Wellness Action believe this conduct violates Florida’s anti-cruelty laws, and should subject those involved to felony offenses.
• In the video , live pigeons are launched into the air from spring-loaded boxes and shot after fluttering out of the contraption.
• To choose instead to slaughter live animals is just pathological,” said Steve Hindi, president of SHARK, who famously campaigned to help stop a notorious live pigeon shoot in Hegins, Penn.
• SHARK and Animal Wellness Action have created a petition calling out Mr. Link and asking him to discontinue any future pigeon-shooting events.