Nocturnal animals

Nocturnal animals are mainly active at night. Evening and dawn activity is often called crepuscular. These patterns can help animals find food, avoid heat or reduce encounters with predators.

Which animals are active at night?

Examples include many owls, bats, aye-ayes, hedgehogs, badgers, fennec foxes, raccoons, skunks, scorpions and tarantulas. Wolves, red foxes, martens and weasels may also be active at night, but schedules vary with the species, season and surroundings.

Some night-active animals have especially sensitive hearing, smell or vision adapted to dim light.