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Information about Nocturnal

“Nocturnal” redirects here. For other uses, see Nocturnal (disambiguation).


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A bat illustrating nocturnal features.
As an animal behavior, nocturnality describes sleeping during the daytime and being active at night - the opposite of the diurnal human lifestyle, and that of those animals with which we are most familiar. The intermediate crepuscular schedule (twilight activity) is also common. Some species are active both during the day and night. Living at night can be seen as a form of niche differentiation, where a species' niche is partitioned not by resources but by time itself, i.e. temporal division of the ecological niche. It can also be viewed as a form of crypsis, in other words an adaptation to avoid or enhance predation. There are other reasons for nocturnality as well, such as keeping out of the heat of the day. This is especially true in deserts, where many animals' nocturnal behavior prevents them from losing precious water during the hot, dry daytime. This is an adaptation that enhances osmoregulation.[1]

Many species which are otherwise diurnal exhibit some nocturnal behaviour; for example, many seabirds and sea turtles attend breeding sites or colonies nocturnally to reduce the risk of predation (to themselves or their offspring) but are otherwise diurnal. Some animals are not really nocturnal and are instead crepuscular, being mostly active in twilight.

Nocturnal animals generally have highly developed senses of hearing and smell, and specially adapted eyesight. In zoos, nocturnal animals are usually kept in special night-illumination enclosures to reverse their normal sleep-wake cycle and to keep them active during the hours when visitors will be attempting to see them.

Some animals, such as cats, have eyes that can adapt to both night and day levels of illumination. Others, e.g. bushbabies and bats, can only function at night.

A person who exhibits nocturnal habits is referred to as a night owl.

Examples

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A long exposure outside a floodlight showing moth movements.


The following animals are generally classified as nocturnal:

See also

References

1. ^ N.A.Campbell (1996) Biology (4th edition) Benjamin Cummings NY. ISBN 0-8053-1957-3


Bats are apaet
A nocturnal animal is an animal that is active after dark.

Nocturnal may also refer to:
  • Nocturnal (instrument), a device for determining time from the position of stars
  • Nocturnal (band), a black metal band

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Ethology (from Greek: ήθος, ethos, "custom"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the scientific study of animal behavior, and a branch of zoology.
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Sleep is the state of natural rest observed throughout the animal kingdom, in all mammals and birds, and in many reptiles, amphibians, and fish.

In humans, other mammals, and many other animals that have been studied — such as fish, birds, ants, and fruit-flies —
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Daytime may refer to:
  • Daytime (astronomy), the time between sunrise and sunset, on Earth or elsewhere
  • The DAYTIME protocol, used on computer networks
  • Daytime television
  • Daytime (album), a single by the German band Jane

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Night or nighttime is the period of time when the sun is below the horizon. The opposite of night is day (or "daytime" to distinguish it from "day" as used for a 24-hour period). Time of day varies based on factors such as season, latitude, longitude and timezone.
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In animal behavior, diurnality is an animal that is active during the daytime and rests during the night. Animals that are not diurnal are either nocturnal (active at night) or crepuscular (active primarily during twilight, i.e., at dusk and dawn).
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Crepuscular is a term used to describe animals that are primarily active during the twilight. The word ultimately derives from the Latin word crepusculum, meaning "twilight". Crepuscular is thus in contrast with diurnal and nocturnal.
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The term niche differentiation (synonymous with niche segregation, niche separation and niche partitioning), as it applies to the field of ecology, refers to the process by which natural selection drives competing species into different patterns of resource use
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time.

One view is that time is part of the fundamental structure of the universe, a dimension in which events occur in sequence, and time itself is something that can be measured.
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niche (pronounced nich, neesh or nish)[] is a term describing the relational position of a species or population in its ecosystem[1]. The ecological niche describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of resources and competitors (e. g.
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crypsis is the ability of an organism to avoid observation. A cryptic animal may do this through camouflage, nocturnality, subterranean lifestyle, transparency[1], or mimicry.
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predation describes a biological interaction where a predator organism feeds on another living organism or organisms known as prey.[1] Predators may or may not kill their prey prior to feeding on them.
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desert is a landscape form or region that receives very little precipitation. Deserts are defined as areas that receive an average annual precipitation of less than 250 mm (10 in). In the Köppen climate classification system, deserts are classed as (BW).
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An adaptation is a positive characteristic of an organism that has been favored by natural selection.[1] The concept is central to biology, particularly in evolutionary biology.
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Osmoregulation is the active regulation of the osmotic pressure of bodily fluids to maintain the homeostasis of the body's water content; that is it keeps the body's fluids from becoming too dilute or too concentrated.
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Seabirds are birds that have adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar
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Crepuscular is a term used to describe animals that are primarily active during the twilight. The word ultimately derives from the Latin word crepusculum, meaning "twilight". Crepuscular is thus in contrast with diurnal and nocturnal.
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Hearing (or audition) is one of the traditional five senses, and refers to the ability to detect sound. In humans and other vertebrates, hearing is performed primarily by the auditory system: sound is detected by the ear and transduced into nerve impulses that are perceived
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Olfaction (also known as olfactics) refers to the sense of smell. This sense is mediated by specialized sensory cells of the nasal cavity of vertbrates, and, by analogy, sensory cells of the antennae of invertebrates.
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In psychology, visual perception is the ability to interpret visible light information reaching the eyes which is then made available for planning and action. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight or vision.
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A zoological garden, zoological park, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures and displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred.
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A circadian rhythm is a roughly-24-hour cycle in the physiological processes of living beings, including plants, animals, fungi and cyanobacteria. The term "circadian", coined by Franz Halberg,[1] comes from the Latin circa, "around", and diem or
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F. s. catus

Trinomial name
Felis silvestris catus
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Synonyms
Felis lybica invalid junior synonym
Felis catus invalid junior synonym[2]

The cat (
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Galagidae
Gray, 1825

Genera
 Otolemur
 Euoticus
 Galago
For the desktop presence framework, see .

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BAT may refer to:
  • Baby AT, a variant of the AT form factor
  • Bangor Area Transit
  • B.A.T., "Bureau of Astral Troubleshooters", a 1990 computer game
  • Batch file, ".BAT", MS-DOS, OS/2, and Windows shell programs
  • BAT (G.I.

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For other uses of the term, see Night Owl.
Night owl is a term for a person who tends to stay up until late at night. Usually, night owls keep awake past midnight, with extreme night owls staying awake until 5:00 or 6:00 AM.
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Melinae
Mellivorinae
Taxidiinae

Genera

 Arctonyx
 Melogale
 Meles
 Mellivora
 Taxidea

Badger
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F. s. catus

Trinomial name
Felis silvestris catus
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Synonyms
Felis lybica invalid junior synonym
Felis catus invalid junior synonym[2]

The cat (
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