Nocturnal animal
animal behavior characterized by activity during the night and sleeping during the day
Nocturnality is a behavior in some non-human animals characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is nocturnal, with diurnal meaning the opposite.
Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed senses of hearing, smell, and specially adapted eyesight. Some animals, such as ferrets, have eyes that can adapt to both low-level and bright day levels of illumination (see metaturnal). Others, such as bushbabies and (some) bats, can function only at night. Many nocturnal creatures including tarsiers and some owls have large eyes in comparison with their body size to compensate. For the lower light levels at night. More specifically, they have been found to have a larger cornea relative to their eye size than diurnal creatures to increase their visual sensitivity: in the low-light conditions. Nocturnality helps wasps, such as Apoica flavissima, avoid hunting in intense sunlight.
Diurnal animals, including humans (except for night owls), squirrels and songbirds, are active during the daytime.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Nocturnal animal” as animal behavior characterized by activity during the night and sleeping during the day. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as animal behavior characterized by activity during the night and sleeping during the day. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q309179. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Scientific names, classifications and consensus can change while older terminology persists in catalogues and historical literature. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Nocturnal animal” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.