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Researchers To Study How Animals Respond To The Solar Eclipse; Morgan Wallen Arrested; South Carolina Defeats Iowa 87-75 For 3rd National Title; Aired 9:30-10a ET
Aired April 08, 2024 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[09:30:20]
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: It is a once in a generation research opportunity and apparently a lot like Barry White music.
In 2017, the last time we had a total eclipse, one researcher wrote, quote, "Another interesting behavior was with the slow moving Galapagos tortoises. During the last eclipse, they began moving much faster and some started mating."
Joining me now is that researcher, Professor Adam Hartstone-Rose, professor of biological sciences at North Carolina State University.
Professor, I know the question everyone wants an answer to is what made the tortoises so Randy?
ADAM HARTSTONE-ROSE, PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY: We have no idea. It seems crazy. I like to think that potentially in a long lived species like this, a rare event like that, could be a signal for mating, but it's probably a one-off. We don't know, but we're going to find out because we're going to be watching more tortoises today.
BERMAN: Lucky tortoises. Let's just say that. Who -- what other animals will you be watching?
HARTSTONE-ROSE: Well, it makes perfect sense. Yes.
BERMAN: What other animals will you be watching? What will you be watching for and is it all PG rated?
HARTSTONE-ROSE: Maybe it's PG rated. Animals will be animals after all, but we'll see what we see. We're going to be watching another fantastic group of gorillas. We're going to be watching a group of bonobos. Those animals can be pretty Randy as well. So who knows what we'll see from them?
We're going to be watching giraffes. There's an amazing array of wonderful animals here at the Fort Worth Zoo, and I'm going to have researchers all over the place watching probably about 20 or 25 species.
BERMAN: I mean, from what I know about bonobos, they don't even need a reason.
But, Professor, the eclipse.
[09:35:01]
HARTSTONE-ROSE: They don't need a reason.
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: What is it specifically about an eclipse? Tortoises and bonobos aside, what are the theories about what makes animals act the way they do? And how much of an advance before the eclipse begin? Will they start acting peculiarly? What do you know?
HARTSTONE-ROSE: Those are really great questions and that's all things that we're trying to figure out.
In 2017, when we were watching animals, most of them behaved as if it had become evening and nighttime. So we think that actually the effects of the sun going down is what they were noticing.
But a lot of the animals exhibited behaviors that we associate with anxiety. We don't know if it's the eclipse itself that makes them anxious or the crazy behavior of the people around because we are so excited.
And as you know, if you have a dog, you might be like, oh, my God, this is great. And your dog will be like, oh, my God, this is great. And the dog has no idea what's great. So that might be something that's happening as well.
BERMAN: Every cat owner in this room that I'm in right now wants to know house pets. Is there anything that we can expect with house pets?
HARTSTONE-ROSE: I think so. So we did a preliminary study during the annular eclipse that happens in October. And the closer people were to totality, the more likely it was that they would see differences in behavior in their dogs.
But what's interesting is that half of them reported that the dogs became super quiet during the eclipse. And the other half reported that their dog started barking or howling during the eclipse. So we just need more data to figure out some of these questions.
BERMAN: For all my immaturity, this is actually genuinely fascinating stuff, Professor.
How long do you prepare before an eclipse? Have you guys been planning since 2017 for this one?
HARTSTONE-ROSE: Pretty much. I mean, it's crazy. So this is such an ephemeral thing. Where I am, it's less than two minutes long. And we've been planning for about six months just to be here, putting people all over.
It's costing so much money, so much time, so much investment, and then it's gone almost in a snap.
BERMAN: Do you need totality for it to work? Do you need -- not just totality, but do you need to be free from cloud cover?
HARTSTONE-ROSE: That's a great question. So that's really two questions. Because one is, what's happening off of the path of totality?
All of North America is going to be under at least a partial eclipse. And we actually have a citizen science project where anybody can watch animals during the eclipse from wherever they are and contribute data.
Our project is called Solar Eclipse Safari, and anybody can learn about it on solareclipsesafari.org. And we have all the tools to take data.
And if people are off of the path of totality, that will tell us whether animals behave interestingly when it's not 100 percent.
Cloud cover, that's another question that we don't know the answer of. A lot of us came to Texas because the weather report, you know, six months ago, looks like Texas was the surest bet. And, of course, now it's looking like our friends up in Buffalo and Toronto and Montreal might have clearer weather.
So we don't know, but that will help us answer those questions again. If there is cloud cover, do the animals react to the eclipse or not?
Professor Adam Hartstone-Rose I got to say, I can't wait to see what you find out. Give the tortoises the privacy they need. That's my only request. Professor, thank you so much.
HARTSTONE-ROSE: They're going to be very much overexposed, unfortunately. But we'll see cool things, that's for sure.
BERMAN: Depends what your definition of cool is. I appreciate it. Thank you.
Country music --
HARTSTONE-ROSE: Thank you.
BERMAN: -- star Morgan Wallen is in trouble again, now facing felony charges. Kate.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'll take it, because I know that you're blown over by that. Our deepest appreciation and also apologies to the professor for having to deal with John that entire time.
But back to this, coming up for us, country music star, Morgan Wallen, in trouble and under arrest once again, now facing felony charges after an incident at a Nashville bar overnight. We'll be right back.
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[09:40:49] BOLDUAN: Country music star, Morgan Wallen has been arrested on felony charges after he allegedly threw a chair from a rooftop bar in Nashville, late last night. The chair fell six stories and landed near to police officers.
Witnesses say Wallen was seen laughing afterward. He now is facing three charges of reckless endangerment. His lawyer says that he is cooperating with police.
A man has been arrested after allegedly trying to set fire to the Vermont office of Senator Bernie Sanders. Investigators say the 35- year-old sprayed an accelerant on the office door before igniting it.
Sanders put out a statement after this arrest saying that he's deeply grateful for the work of law enforcement. No one was hurt in the incident, thankfully.
And crews in Baltimore have begun removing cargo containers from the ship that caused the Francis Scott Key Bridge to collapse. The goal now is to move enough containers so workers can access the front of the ship and begin deconstructing the tangled mess of debris, still stuck there now two weeks later only then can they move the ship to shore. Sara?
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. It all comes down to this. Tonight, the Yukon men hoping to defend their title as they take on Purdue in the NCAA Championship game.
[09:45:02]
Last night, though, girls ran the world of basketball. South Carolina topping off a perfect season defeating Iowa, and the star player, Caitlin Clark, to take home the national title for the third time.
CNN's Coy Wire is joining us now from Glendale, Arizona. A lot of buildup to this game, baby. But boy, the girls loud man. Man, what a game.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Man, these women have been smashing glass ceilings, right, Sara? And once -- one of the semi-final games had more viewers than every World Series and NBA Finals games last year and any Masters final rounds since 2013.
So the game for last night's game was the hype. Hypeness was palpable. Iowa's Caitlin Clark, Dawn Staley's South Carolina facing off both driving forces behind the women's sports boom.
Clark breaking another record in the final. Her 18 points in the first were the most in any quarter in NCAA tournament history. She finished with 30. But South Carolina was just too much. They're bench alone, scored 37 points while Iowa scored zero.
The Gamecocks finish off their perfect season 38 and 0.
And Dawn Staley, the girl who grew up in North Philadelphia projects continues to solidify herself as one of the all-time great leaders in sports, winning a third title in seven years.
How's it feel to win, Coach?
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DAWN STALEY, SOUTH CAROLINA HEAD COACH: The fact, it feels great. I never really paid attention to be undefeated because it really didn't feel like that. Every day, we would go into practice and, you know, we didn't play. We didn't practice perfectly.
Every game that we went into, we did not execute perfectly. So all the things that we didn't execute are the things that were right there in front of us and they felt like losses.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: All right. Now, in the men's final tonight in the stadium behind me, we've got a powerhouse looking to win back to back titles against the team that's never won one. Yukon and Purdue plan in a huge game featuring two really huge dudes, the two-time national player of the year, Purdue's Zach Edey, stands seven-foot-four. He'll face Yukon's seven foot two, Donovan Clingan.
I talked to the coaches last night and the Huskies coach, Dan Hurley, had the perfect description for this matchup. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAN HURLEY, UCONN HEAD COACH: You know, we've got Cling Kong it looks like and (inaudible) you know, they've got Godzilla over there.
So we've got a true clash of the titan type of match up there.
MATT PAINTER, PURDUE HEAD COACH: We have to be able to get the basketball to Zach Edey, you know, where he can go to work and do some different things to put them in a bind. If we can't put them in that bind, that's going to be really difficult for us.
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WIRE: All right. You can watch the game tonight on TBS and streaming on match coverage begins at 7:00 Eastern. The game just after 9:00.
Sara, this will be the first battle of seven foot centers in a title game since Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon over 40 years ago. It is outstanding watching these two practice all week. Now we get to see them go toe-to-toe.
SIDNER: I can't believe that I'm old enough to remember those days with Hakeem Olajuwon and Ewing. Thank you so much, Coy Wire. And have fun out there. This is going to be great. John.
BERMAN: All right. Counting down to a collective moment of complete darkness. Brianna Keilar, Boris Sanchez, the CNN anchors who have been training for months to bring you a total eclipse of the donut, apparently. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:50:41]
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BOLDUAN: So, what are your eclipse plans for today friends other than some beautiful music?
Almost every single person in the United States will be able to get some sort of a glimpse of the solar eclipse, we believe.
The real winners, though, are in the path of totality. That includes Indianapolis, Indiana, the best state in the country. It's the first time in more than 800 years that Ariel (ph) will see a total solar eclipse.
And that is where CNN's Boris Sanchez and Brianna Keilar are out right now in the path of totality at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
And, Brianna, I was thinking, this is like a double whammy of awesome for you. You, not only are you in the path of totality, you're also like the biggest lover of car racing of anybody I know.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. I really am. I'm really into NASCAR. There's Indy cars going by, which are also pretty cool.
But this is unbelievable. We're here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Boris. It's going to be the biggest viewing party in all of the country.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to be here with some 40,000 of our closest friends just here in the speedway around town. There's something like what 100,000 people that are coming to Indy, specifically to watch the eclipse.
It's a huge boon for the local economy. There's not only a ton of festivities here. They're all around town. There's going to be a silent disco, a paddle boarding experience. And this is just one spot in the path of totality where we're going to witness all sorts of fun and wildness and a little weirdness too.
[09:55:08]
KEILAR: And we really did get lucky because you see the path there, guys, and it looks amazing, but not everyone is going to be able to see every --
SANCHEZ: Yes.
KEILAR: -- amazing phenomena of this eclipse because weather is going to be the wild card here. Mother Nature is going to have the final say.
And right now here in Indianapolis, the skies are completely clear. They're expected to pretty much stay that way. So we're really excited for what we're going to see.
BERMAN: Boris, are you required to call it a total Bri-clipse (ph)? Bri-clipse as they say?
SANCHEZ: Yes. Brianna has -- Brianna has threatened physical violence, unless I refer to it as a Bri-clipse. We should give them a preview of some of the other things we're going to be seeing in the path of totality we're going to be covering this afternoon.
KEILAR: Oh, my gosh, yes. That's right. But it's not just the Bri- clipse, it's also Boris-Sunchez (ph).
SANCHEZ: Sunchez. Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
KEILAR: He's (inaudible)
SANCHEZ: I'm quite scared of what she's going to -- I'm quite scared of what she's going to do to me if I don't --
KEILAR: We have -- we have --
SANCHEZ: -- play with this game.
KEILAR: He has to play along. But we are going to be bringing -- I mean the sun and the moon are going to bring this amazing show. But CNN is really bringing a show unlike any other all the way from Texas up to Canada.
We are going to be seeing this when this begins in Mexico, but we're going to see a mass wedding.
SANCHEZ: A mass wedding. There's a rumor somebody on CNN is going to get a tattoo on the air.
KEILAR: Miguel Marquez.
SANCHEZ: There's going to be a --
KEILAR: You may have started that rumor.
SANCHEZ: There's going to be a solar eclipse flight as well. We're going to get some pictures from. So it's a jam-packed afternoon you will not want to miss it.
SIDNER: The tattoo, I'm concerned about because it'll be dark. And I don't know if that's a good idea.
BERMAN: Yes. Oops.
SIDNER: Oops. Sorry. Boris and Brianna.
BOLDUAN: And a Machine Gun Kelly --
SIDNER: -- have so much fun. Thank you so much. You guys are our sun. Thank you so much for joining us as well. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "CNN NEWSROOM" with Jim Acosta, up next.
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