IG听力2106 Part4 音频
[00:02.53] As part of my research on animal behaviour during unusual planetary occurrences
[00:09.16] I found myself in Vicuña in Chile during a solar eclipse. （31）
[00:15.54] The city was within the path of a total eclipse;
[00:19.52] the sun, the moon and the Earth, in that order,
[00:23.24] move into perfect alignment, cloaking everything in darkness.
[00:29.61] For just 140 seconds, the moon rolled in front of the sun.
[00:36.26] The sunlight went out and the air suddenly turned cold.
[00:41.04] The humans cheered and clapped, while flocks of birds began to panic, their timeless routine disrupted.（32）
[00:50.61] I was here to observe the birds, not the eclipse.
[00:55.58] For most animals, the structure of their day, and indeed their year,
[01:01.16] depends on the light-dark cycle
[01:03.81] and the moon’s regular journey from full moon to full moon over 28 nights.
[01:11.26] These regular and rhythmic cycles in the length of days and nights tell animals when they should be foraging, （33）
[01:20.55] when they should be asleep,
[01:22.41] when it is time to migrate and when it is time to breed and raise their young.
[01:28.78] Animals can tell all this from how many hours of daylight they have
[01:34.37] and the levels of light, or rather darkness, they experience at night.
[01:40.47] But what happens to animals when the moon or the sun does something unusual or unexpected, such as an eclipse?
[01:50.83] Of all the cosmic events, the solar eclipses prompt perhaps the biggest change in animal behaviour.
[01:59.85] Puzzled animals that are active during the day head back to their night-time abodes while nocturnal animals think they have overslept. （34）
[02:10.75] A solar eclipse occurs when the sun, moon and Earth are aligned on the same axis,
[02:18.46] so the moon completely blocks the sun.
[02:21.90] Around the world unusual incidences of animal behaviour are observed and reported while everyone else is watching the eclipse.
[02:33.34] Some spider species begin to break down their webs during an eclipse, as they typically do at the end of the day.
[02:43.69] Once the eclipse has passed, they begin to rebuild them.
[02:48.13] Similarly, fish and birds that are active during the day, head for their night-time resting places,
[02:55.83] while nocturnal bats appear, seemingly tricked by the sudden darkness.
[03:02.22] Hippopotami in Zimbabwe were observed leaving their rivers during an eclipse,
[03:09.12] heading towards their nocturnal feeding grounds on dry land.
[03:14.08] Midway through their departure from the water, the eclipse passed, daylight resumed and the hippos cut short their efforts.
[03:24.44] The animals appeared agitated and stressed after the eclipse for the remainder of the day.（35）
[03:32.42] A lunar eclipse happens when the moon, Earth and sun are very closely aligned,
[03:39.32] with Earth positioned between the two.
[03:42.78] As the moon passes directly behind us,
[03:46.49] Earth blocks sunlight from reaching the moon,
[03:50.21] causing a reddish glow to appear.
[03:53.14] These so-called ‘Blood moons’ can only appear where there is a full moon,
[04:00.83] so it’s difficult to separate the impact that lunar eclipses have on animals’ reactions compared to a standard full moon.（36）
[04:10.93] A study in 2010 discovered that a species in Argentina known as the owl monkeys,
[04:19.69] which are typically nocturnal,
[04:21.55] did not start to forage during a lunar eclipse as their world became very much darker.
[04:29.25] They may have struggled to see their food as their eyes had not had time to adapt,
[04:35.90] or felt too unnerved to move safely through the trees.（37）
[04:41.21] Around three times a year, a ‘supermoon’ occurs when the full moon is at its closest to the Earth.
[04:50.51] The moon’s distance to Earth varies throughout the month because its orbit is not a perfect circle.
[05:00.07] When a supermoon event occurs, the moon is about 46,000 kilometres closer to the Earth
[05:09.90] than during the period in its cycle when the moon is furthest from Earth.
[05:16.54] During a supermoon, light levels are about 30% brighter than at any point in the moon’s cycle
[05:26.63] and it appears much brighter in the sky.
[05:30.62] A recent study found that wild geese responded to these supermoons while over-wintering in Scotland. （38）
[05:40.71] Small devices which measure their behaviour were fitted to the animals.
[05:47.36] Researchers found that the geese’s heart rate and body temperature increased at night during supermoons,
[05:57.18] when typically at this time of night, they would have been subdued.
[06:03.55] The birds didn’t respond to ‘supermoon’ events when the moon was covered by very heavy cloud and the night stayed dark.
[06:15.78] It appears that, a bit like with humans, the bright light of a supermoon woke the geese up,
[06:24.54] causing their heart rates and body temperatures to increase potentially in preparation for daytime.
[06:34.63] For centuries, mankind has been fascinated about the relationship between human behaviour and the lunar cycle. （39）
[06:44.47] Many folklores and fables are connected to our interactions with the moon,
[06:51.90] the most extreme example being that of mythical beasts that roam the world when a full moon is shining.
[07:01.46] It was once believed that the lunar cycle influenced a range of strange changes to a person’s behaviour
[07:11.56] and that of wider society.
[07:15.28] For example, many believed that levels of argumentativeness and aggression were influenced by the moon.
[07:25.90] The word ‘lunacy’ still used to describe extreme recklessness comes from the Latin word ‘lunaticus’ meaning ‘of the moon’.
[07:39.98] A series of scientific studies published about thirty years ago
[07:44.94] found that there was no concrete evidence of any link between the lunar cycle and human behaviour, （40）
[07:53.43] the moon’s influence on us might remain the stuff of legend and myth,
[08:00.08] but the confusion it sows among wild animals is very real indeed.
