What animals are nocturnal? Crepuscular animals - characteristics, adaptations and examples Examples of diurnal and nocturnal animals.

Twilight animals are those that are active mainly at dusk (that is, during periods of dawn and evening twilight). Twilight behavior differs from daytime, nocturnal and mixed behavior, when animals are active during the day or at night, respectively. However, the term is not accurate, as some crepuscular animals can also be active during the moonlit night or during cloudy day... The term morning is used for animals that are active only at dawn before sunrise, and evening for those who are active at dusk after sunset.

The time an animal is active depends on a number of factors. Predators should associate their activities with the time of day when their prey is available, and prey tries to avoid cases when their main predators are most active. Temperatures at noon can be too high and too cold at night. Some creatures can adjust their activities depending on the local competition of species for food. Therefore, given many varied reasons, crepuscular activity can maximize the satisfaction of an animal's needs through compromise.

Twilight behavior differs from daytime and nighttime, which peak during hours daylight and darkness, respectively. However, the difference is not absolute because crepuscular animals can also be active on a bright moonlit night or cloudy day. Some animals, mistakenly called nocturnal, are actually crepuscular.

Certain forms of twilight behavior include morning and evening, indicating activities only at dawn or dusk, respectively. Animals that are active both in the morning and in the evening twilight have a bimodal pattern of behavior.

The adaptive relevance of a twilight lifestyle

Various behaviors are believed to be protective mechanism from predators, although some may be equally good for predators. Many predators feed most intensively at night, while others are active at noon and see best when sunlight... Thus, a crepuscular lifestyle can reduce the pressure of predation, thereby increasing the number of crepuscular populations, and as a result, creating more favorable conditions to feed predators that are increasingly focusing their attention on twilight prey, until the balance changes. Such mobile states of equilibrium are common in ecosystems.

Some predatory species adjust their habits in response to competition from other predators. For example, the Galapagos subspecies of short-eared owl is usually active during the day, but on islands like Santa Cruz, which are home to the Galapagos hawk, these owls have become crepuscular.

In addition to attitudes toward predation, twilight activity in hotter regions of the world may also be the most effective way avoid heat stress while using available light during sunrise and sunset.

Examples of animals with twilight behavior

Many mammalian species we know are crepuscular, including some the bats, hamsters, domestic cats, stray dogs, rabbits, ferrets, Guinea pigs and rats. Other crepuscular mammals include: jaguars, ocelots, lynxes, wet-nosed primates, red pandas, bears, deer, moose, sitatungs, capybaras, chinchillas, house mice, skunks, wombats, possums, marsupial flying squirrels, tenrecs, spotted hyenas and African wild dogs.

Snakes and lizards, especially in desert conditions may also be crepuscular. Twilight birds include the lesser nightjar, the common barn owl, the owl's nightjar, the clouded needletail, the American woodcock, the pug, and the white-breasted little shepherd boy. Many butterflies, beetles, flies and other insects are crepuscular and evening insects.

We know many amazing and beautiful animals. We were told about some of them in childhood, some we see ourselves or learn about them on TV. But there is a huge group of animals that we know a little less about - these are nocturnal animals.

V natural conditions meeting these animals is not easy. That is why we decided to slightly open the door in wonderful world nocturnal animals that are distinguished by their beauty.

Below is a list of the 10 most beautiful nocturnal animals in the world according to our online magazine.

#10

Almost all species of animals of the order bats, including bats and fruit bat are nocturnal creatures. In the world there are about 1000 different types bats.

Is perhaps the most beautiful view family of fruit bats. These animals live in the forests of India, China, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives.

Has quite big sizes among their relatives - the wingspan can reach 1.5 meters. Also, these animals have a rather interesting and expressive appearance. Unlike bats, flying foxes not so terrible, their heads are more like a dog's, and the body is covered with reddish hair.

These animals feed exclusively on fruits. They travel long distances in search of food at night. Big eyes with excellent night vision help them in long distance night flights.

#9

These snakes of the viper family differ in their bright color and amazing eyelashes. They live in rainforest Central and South America.

They come in a variety of colors including yellow, red, green, and brown. These snakes spend most of their time on small tree branches, often hanging upside down with their tail caught on branches. At night, snakes go out to hunt.

They feed on small rodents, lizards, frogs and small birds. But if you disturb chain-tailed botrops, he can even attack a person. The venom of these snakes can be fatal to humans.

#8

Barn owl- a nocturnal bird that lives on all continents, with the exception of Antarctica. And on the territory Russian Federation these birds are found only in the Kaliningrad region.

Barn owls known for their distinctive forms oval face and beautiful plumage. V daytime owls rest in quiet and hidden places and go hunting at night.

These birds have keen hearing and excellent eyesight. These qualities make barn owl excellent hunters. With the development of internet technologies barn owls have become quite popular birds, videos with them are gaining a huge number of views.

They are not only beautiful, but also funny. Often barn owls they begin to make funny grimaces and sway from side to side when they are next to a person, which arouses great interest in people.

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What are the nocturnal animals, you will learn from this article.

What animals are nocturnal?

Nocturnal animals- this is the behavior that is characterized by high activity at night and sleep during the day. It should be noted that absolutely all types of nocturnal animals have excellent hearing and charm, specially adapted vision.

There are some reasons that contribute to the fact that some animals are active at night and sleep during the day:

• Competition for food resources... Animals that eat the same food on the same piece of land, but in different period of time, are not competitors among themselves and occupy distinctive ecological niches. Examples include hawks that hunt during the day and representatives of owls that are active at night.
• Stealth... It is much easier for a predator to get close to its prey in the dark. Let's give examples. Lions, which are equally active at night and during the day, still prefer to hunt at night. This is due to the fact that the victims of these animals - antelopes and zebras, are diurnal animals, so they see poorly at night. AND reverse example: most species of small rodents are active at night, because predator birds, their enemies are predominantly active during the daytime.
• Maintaining water balance in the body... Inhabitants of arid places are active at night due to the fact that the absence of the influence of sunlight on the body of animals significantly reduces the evaporation of water from their body. That is why any desert seems lifeless during the day.

Nocturnal animals list.

A forest - be it tropical, mid-latitude deciduous or northern coniferous - has a profound effect on the appearance and lifestyle of all its inhabitants. Many of them began to live in trees, others occupied the lower tiers of vegetation, consisting of grasses, small shrubs and mosses, and others settled in deep burrows underground. But everyone learned to merge with their environment, to be inconspicuous parts of a complex organism, which is a forest. Forests occupy vast areas of our country and are inhabited by representatives of almost all orders of the mammalian class. Richest species composition beasts in southern wet forests, as well as in the forests of the forest-steppe belt of our territory. Here among the variety plant communities animals always have the opportunity to choose a place convenient for themselves, find the necessary food and safe haven from enemies and bad weather. Much fewer species animals in the northern forests.

It is not easy to spot animals in the forest, they are very careful. But everyone who has been to deciduous or coniferous forest, it is clear that life is in full swing here day and night.

But it is at night, when the many-voiced bird choir falls silent, that the pulse of life of mammals of the forest is best felt. During night excursions in calm weather among the transparent silence, we most often hear squeaks and chirps of small animals. These are echoes of the rapidly boiling life of the most numerous inhabitants of the forest kingdom - insectivores and rodents. However, sometimes, if you are lucky, in the oak forest you can hear both the short barking of a roe deer warning the brethren of the approaching danger, and the grunting of feeding wild boars. But that doesn't happen often. Many large animals are "taciturn". This is understandable. Despite the seemingly huge superiority in the strength of large animals over small ones, they have no less enemies, and it is more difficult to hide from them. It is difficult for them in the struggle for the preservation of the species, perhaps even more difficult than for small animals, on whose side an incomparable advantage is enormous fertility. Of the large animals, the set of sounds emitted by predators, for example, wolves, is richer. Having practically no enemies, with the exception of a person, they maintain communication within the pack with loud howls and barks.

It cannot be said about most of the inhabitants of the night forest that they lead an exclusively nocturnal lifestyle - most often their activity is mixed. Nevertheless, they have all adapted to life in low light conditions. In our forests at night you can meet many representatives of the order of insectivores - hedgehogs and shrews. Of the rodents, mice, rats, voles and dormouse are active at night, all of them are often combined under the name "mouse rodents". The latter are one of the main hunting objects for predatory mammals, in particular for foxes and sometimes wolves. In addition to the listed animals, bats are nocturnal. In low light, some semi-aquatic rodents, for example, a beaver, are also active; moles live in absolute darkness. However, due to the peculiarities of their habitat, these animals will be discussed later in special chapters: "