During the Great American Eclipse of 2017, zoo animals acting strangely took researchers by surprise — the giraffes gathered and broke into a gallop, the Galápagos tortoises began to mate, and the gorillas started to get ready for bed. These odd behaviors were just a few of several anomalies that scientists stationed at the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in Columbia, South Carolina, observed during the historic solar event spanning the United States, according to a March 2020 report. “Giraffes are kind of delicate, they don’t run a lot. When they run, it’s because they’re running from a predator or something like that,” said lead study author Dr. Adam Hartstone-Rose, professor of biological sciences at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. “It was kind of amazing and mind-blowing,” he said. Animal keepers at the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere also documented giraffes galloping during the brief moments in 2017 when the sky darkened in the middle of the…
