Full Moon Fever

The full moon, this year the so-called "super full moon", occurred yesterday. There have been lots of observations and speculation on possible effects of the full moon on animal behavior. Yesterday morning I was up early to make my daily weather observation, and as it turns out, an animal behavior observation as well. Since I was up I let M sleep in and gave the gliders their morning yogurt. I brought them into the office in their pouch, and true to form Virga and Cirrus were first out to get their licks. A few minutes later I decided to fish Foehn and CB out of the pouch since they were fussing. Within a minute or so both Foehn and CB were running around the office like kids on a sugar rush! Foehn continually ran around the room, jumping from me to their tree to the floor and back again. Even when she landed on my leg she hardly broke stride. The two of them continued on like this for at least 10 minutes. Meanwhile, Virga and Cirrus were having a good time in the wheel.  I have never seen Foehn and CB this "hyper" before. All four them wound down after about 20 minutes or so, and one by one they climbed back into their sleeping pouch that was sitting on a chair next to me. Even after I got them back to the cage, two of them were out again in the cage, one on the wheel. It was a while before they all settled down to sleep for the day, well past their normal "bedtime". At the time I was at a loss to explain the unusual morning behavior. It was only later that I realized there was a full moon, and that perhaps the morning activity was a case of "full moon fever".