The great eclipse experiment: 42 recorders will follow the animals of the Balearic Islands
The devices will record the sounds of birds and bats before, during, and after the eclipse to detect changes in their activity
Palma42 recorders installed on Mallorca, Menorca, and Ibiza will record the activity of birds and bats before, during, and after the total solar eclipse of this Wednesday, August 12. The objective is to study whether the darkening caused by the astronomical phenomenon alters the behavior of these species.
The Balearic Biodiversity Research Initiative (IRBI) has deployed 20 devices on Mallorca and Menorca: 13 AudioMoth recorders and seven Song Meter Micro. For its part, the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (Imedea, CSIC-UIB) has installed 22 more, 12 on Mallorca and 10 on Ibiza.
The action is part of the Ecoeclipse project, coordinated by the researcher from the National Museum of Natural Sciences Airam Rodríguez and the researcher from the University of Seville Irene Mendoza. The teams will record the songs of birds and the ultrasounds of bats to detect possible variations in their activity coinciding with the eclipse.
The project has the participation of more than a hundred researchers, naturalists, and volunteers, who will install recorders at more than 300 locations in Spain and Portugal. All teams will follow the same protocol to obtain comparable data on the fauna's response to the eclipse.
