San Antonio Zoo animals go bananas during eclipse as creatures freak out when day becomes night

Animals at a Texas zoo went berserk yesterday thanks to the total solar eclipse - when night to turned day.

Employees at the San Antonio Zoo captured clips for a video yesterday of four different species going crazy during the eclipse.

The hyped animals in the video were meerkats, whooping cranes, and flamingos. Some were seen scurrying to their nighttime habitat as the eclipse rolled in, even though it was in the afternoon. Others squawked and flapped their wings over the change in light. 

'While it’s possible some of this behavior may have been coincidental, this certainly caused a difference in a typical day for all of us - humans and animals!,' read the video description.

According to the National Weather Service, the partial eclipse began in San Antonio at 12:14pm and ended at 2:56pm.  

The employee at the San Antonio Zoo put together clips of the animal reacting to the April 8 eclipse

According to the National Weather Service , the partial eclipse began in San Antonio at 12:14pm and ended at 2:56pm. Pictured: A composite of the eclipse as seen in Mexico

A total solar eclipse happens when the moon and the sun line up perfectly while the moon is close enough to cover the entire sun. 

Americans nationwide stopped what they were doing to view the eclipse, with it's grand finale being in Maine. The last total solar eclipse that was visible in North America was in 2017.

The rare event will occur in the contiguous US again, but skyviewers will have to wait until August 2044.

This may be a disappointment to stargazers in the US and a relief to the animals at the San Antonio Zoo.

The animals couldn't stop jumping or running away as soon as the sky slowly became dark. The animals that seemingly sprinted the fastest were the meerkats - African animals that love basking in the sun.

A total solar eclipse happens when the moon and the sun line up perfectly while the moon is close enough to cover the entire sun

Americans nationwide stopped what they were doing to view the eclipse, with it's grand finale being in Maine. The last total solar eclipse that was visible in North America was in 2017

The rare event will occur in the contiguous US again, but skyviewers will have to wait until August 2044. The next total solar eclipse will be seen by people in Greenland

A separate video of the meerkats shows them going into their indoor habit shortly before the eclipse reached its totality. The African species are diurnal, which means that they are awake during the day.

According to the zookeepers, the correctly predicted their meerkats would display their 'evening activity patterns' once the eclipse reached its totality.

The flamingos also stayed in packs, but instead of running away, they appeared to be fast walking.

A few of them moved their wings and some flew into the air, just like the zoo's jumping whooping cranes. 

Like meerkats, whooping cranes are diurnal and flying during the day and rest at night.

The whooping cranes at the San Antonio Zoo were doing the opposite of that in their habitat, and their jumping up and down was referred to as 'dancing just after totality.'

The animals in San Antonio weren't the only ones that were hyped up during the eclipse - as zoos across the nation shared clips and videos of animals reacting to the sight on Monday. 

The flamingos at the San Antonio Zoo also stayed in packs, but instead of running away, they appeared to be fast walking. A few of them moved their wings and some flew into the air

Animals at the Dallas Zoo reacted to the eclipse, including giraffes and ostriches. However, their elephants and gorillas were not bothered by it

The giraffes, zebras and ostriches were freaked out at the Dallas Zoo during yesterday's total solar eclipse.

The Dallas Zoo held a special eclipse-event for their guests and its employees talked about how their animals reacted while their visitors were watching the eclipse's totality.

Zookeepers assumed that primates would be the most sensitive to the rare event.

However, once it got dark, their ostriches gathered together in the center of their pen and one of them even laid an egg before the sun was covered. Their penguins and flamingos also huddled together in their habitats.

The zoo's giraffes and zebras were the ones who bolted across their enclosures, some of them even jumping away.

While those animals weren't fans of the eclipse, the Dallas Zoo's elephants and Western Lowland Gorillas had no problems during the eclipse.

All the elephants did was eat while the gorillas just yawned and stretched out in their habitats.

The giraffes were the first to bolt, galloping in huge strides across their enclosure. The zebras at the Dallas Zoo eventually did the same thing

As the sky began to darken the animals became more alert and some began to spook

Watching crowds were delighted by the eclipse and seeing how the animals reacted

The Western Lowland Gorillas merely yawned and stretched as the skies got darker

The giraffes calmed down again after a while as the sky lightened again

Christine Montgomery, Manager of Applied Behavior at the Dallas Zoo, told CW33: 'This is the first eclipse that we’ve actually had here in the Dallas Zoo, so we are really interested to see what our animals are going to do.'

A 2020 study of how animals react to the zoo said that the rarity of an eclipse makes it a 'novel experience' for animals and so may induce 'anomalous behaviors'. 

They found that of the 17 species they observed, 13 exhibited unusual behaviors. 

They found that a number of the species exhibited anxious behaviors, huddling together or falling quiet. 

Komodo dragons had one of the most interesting changes in the study, going from lying almost perfectly still to running around frantically until the sun reappeared. 

Baboons, flamingos, gorillas, giraffes and Komodo dragons all displayed worried behaviors, while birds and elephants just acted as though it was nighttime.