Grazing this way might offer safety in numbers. But as nights got darker, the buffalo were more likely to form herds. “They just sort of went where the food was,” Palmer says. They also were least likely to alter where and when they foraged throughout the lunar cycle. Weighing as much as 900 kilograms (almost 2,000 pounds), the African buffalo are a lion’s most daunting prey. During the darkest parts of the month, Palmer says, “they’d park themselves in a safe area.” But as the nights got brighter, she notes, wildebeests were more willing to venture into places where run-ins with lions were likely. These animals appeared to set their plans for the entire night based on the moon’s phase. The candid snapshots revealed that these species respond to changing risks across the lunar cycle in different ways.Ĭommon wildebeest, which make up a third of the lion diet, were the most attuned to the lunar cycle. To meet their food needs, such species must forage frequently, even at night. The prey - wildebeests, zebras, gazelles and buffalo - are all plant eaters. Volunteers with a citizen science project called Snapshot Serengeti then analyzed thousands of images. The cameras responded by snapping their pictures. When animals came by, they tripped a sensor. The scientists installed 225 cameras across an area almost as big as Los Angeles, Calif. She and colleagues spied on four of the lions’ favorite prey species for several years. Meredith Palmer is an ecologist at Princeton University in New Jersey. Palmer, Snapshot Serengeti/Serengeti Lion Project But how those prey respond to changing predator threats as the night’s light changes throughout a month has been a dark mystery. They’re most successful at ambushing animals (including humans) during the darker phases of the moon’s cycle. Lions of the Serengeti in the East African nation of Tanzania are night stalkers. Several recently discovered examples reveal how moonlight influences the behavior of lion prey, the navigation of dung beetles, the growth of fish - even birdsong. And this work continues to turn up new connections. Researchers have been cataloging moonlight’s effects on animals for decades. He’s an ecologist at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. food - the most important environmental driver of changes in behavior and physiology,” says Davide Dominoni. “Light is possibly - maybe just after the availability of. Among them are reproduction, foraging and communication. Throughout the animal world, the presence or absence of moonlight, and the predictable changes in its brightness across the lunar cycle, can shape a range of important activities. Far from any artificial light, the difference between a full moon and a new moon (when the moon appears invisible to us) can be the difference between being able to navigate outdoors without a flashlight and not being able to see the hand in front of your face. Less well-known, the moon also influences life with its light.Įxplainer: Does the moon influence people?įor people living in cities ablaze with artificial lights, it can be hard to imagine how dramatically moonlight can change the night landscape. Those tides also exert their own power over the life cycles of many coastal creatures. Many people know that the moon’s gravitational tug on the Earth drives the tides. That tide will wash the baby grunion out to sea.Ĭhoreographing the grunion’s mating dance and mass hatchfest is the moon. The emergence of larvae from those eggs, every two weeks, coincides with the peak high tide. So are the hatchings, some 10 days later. This mating ritual is timed by the tides. Males wrap around these females to release sperm that will fertilize these eggs. The females dig their tails into the sand, then release their eggs. Before long, these small writhing, grunion carpet the beach. As onlookers watch, thousands of silvery sardine look-alikes lunge as far onto shore as possible. Twice a month from March through August, or so, crowds of people gather on Southern California beaches for a regular evening spectacle. And check out our archives for this story about Neil Armstrong and his pioneering 1969 moonwalk. Part two explored what astronauts left on the moon. In part one, Science News reporter Lisa Grossman visited rocks brought back from the moon. Science News for Students is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, which passed in July, with a three-part series about Earth’s moon.
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