With a 99% coverage event, it is still daytime. You still need glasses to look at the sun. Animals continue behaving as normal.

With a total eclipse, day turns to night. Animals alter their behavior patterns. As the totality event begins, the corona casts flickering shadows over the ground. You can look at the sun directly with your naked eye, and observe nuclear fusion directly. On average, any given location on Earth sees a total eclipse once every 375 years, which, while astonishingly common relative to other locations in the solar system, is still extremely rare for a human lifespan.

It is equally bewildering to me that someone would not care about the opportunity to witness such an event.