This nocturnal possum’s body has special adaptations to help it survive in the dark. Photo via Flickr.
Nocturnal animals are active at night as opposed to during the day. Here are 5 special adaptations that allow them to live and thrive in the dark.
It is not very common that I am out exploring in the middle of the night. Maybe I’ll stay up late at night to go to a friends house or watch a late movie. Most of the time I am sleeping at night. My senses and body are attuned to being active during the day and sleeping at night. However, I know there are many nocturnal animals that you can only see if you go exploring at night.
Cat photo via Flickr.
Why Do Nocturnal Animals Have Adaptations?
People and animals all have senses that help us understand what is happening in the world around of us. Those senses are vital to help us survive by finding food and avoiding predators.
Nocturnal animals adapted in order to allow them to have heightened senses to survive in the dark. It is kind of like a blind person that relies heavily on their sense of hearing. Since blind people can’t use their sense of vision they have developed their other senses more. To most non-blind people it seems like a blind person has super hearing.
Well, nocturnal animals have had many, many generations to develop their senses and even change their bodies to allow them to survive in the dark.
5 Adaptations That Nocturnal Animals Have
Eyes Adapted To Compensate For Lack Of Light
Many nocturnal animals, such as moths have specially adapted eyes to give them better eyesight at night. They do this in a variety of different ways:
A tarsier has huge eyes. Photo via Flickr.
Large Eyes – Many nocturnal animals have larger eyes than diurnal animals. This is so that their eyes can capture as much of the available light as possible to help them see in the dark. For example, the tarsier’s eyes are huge in proportion to its head.
Eye Shine – Cats and some other animals have good night vision and their eyes seem to shine at night. This happens because cats eyes’ take in the light and then send it back out of their eyes. They have a reflective layer in the back of their eyes, behind the retina, that reflects the light back out of their eyes. This gives them a second chance to capture all of the light and get a better picture.
A little brown bat uses echolocation to ‘see’ in the dark.
Ears Adapted To Provide Better Hearing
Cupped Ears – Many nocturnal animals have ears that are cupped. These cupped ears give them a better sense of hearing by focusing the sounds in towards their eardrums. Try cupping your hands around your ears and see if you can hear better.
Independent Hearing – Some nocturnal animals have better hearing because they can hear with each ear independently. This means they can figure out where a sound is by using the sound from both of their ears.
Echolocation – Bats have developed a special way of ‘seeing’ in the dark called echolocation. They emit 30 – 60 high frequency calls per second that rebound off objects. Their large ears receive those reflected sounds, and the bats turn them into a mental picture to ‘see’ food or obstacles.