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Solar eclipse changes behaviour of tigers in Bhopal's
Van Vihar National Park

     Bhopal: As the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century passed through India on Wednesday, wildlife officials of a zoological park in Bhopal said they witnessed a change in the behaviour of zoo tigers. Wildlife officials at the Van Vihar National Park, who for the past seven days were keeping a close watch on the animals to analyse the impact of eclipse on them, said that during the eclipse period, the tigers behaved differently. "Before the eclipse, the behaviour of tigers became like that in the night, when they are quite. Our tigress, which usually used to make noise after every five minutes during the day-time, was absolutely quite. The tigers were doing the activities, which they do before retiring for the night," said S. S. Rajput, director, forest department. The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century was visible in a roughly 250 km-wide corridor, according to the U.S. space agency NASA, as it travels half the globe and passes through the world's two most populous nations, India and China. The eclipse began at 5:28 a.m. in India and was there for a maximum of 6 minutes, 39 seconds.
-July 22, 2009

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