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. Ethology ( from Greek ἦθος ethos, "character" and λόγος logos, "knowledge") is the scientific study of Animal Sleep is a Natural state of bodily rest observed throughout the animal kingdom The DAYTIME service is an Internet protocol defined in RFC 867 Night or nighttime is the period of Time when the Sun is below the Horizon. In Animal behavior, diurnality indicates an Animal that is active during the Daytime and rests during the Night. The intermediate crepuscular schedule (twilight activity) is also common. Crepuscular is a term used to describe animals that are primarily active during Twilight, hence at Dawn and at Dusk. 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. The term niche differentiation (synonymous with niche segregation, niche separation and niche partitioning) as it applies to the field of Ecology For other uses see Time (disambiguation Time is a component of a measuring system used to sequence events to compare the durations of e. temporal division of the ecological niche. In Ecology, a niche (pronounced nich nēsh or nish A shorthand definition of niche is how an organism makes a living It can also be viewed as a form of crypsis, in other words an adaptation to avoid or enhance predation. In Ecology, crypsis is the ability of an organism to avoid observation 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. A desert is a Landscape or region that receives very little precipitation. This is an adaptation that enhances osmoregulation. An adaptation is a characteristic of an Organism that has been favored by Natural selection and 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 ^[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. Seabirds are Birds that have adapted to life within the marine environment Sea turtles ( Superfamily Chelonioidea) are Turtles found in all the world's oceans except the Arctic Ocean. Some animals are not really nocturnal and are instead crepuscular, being mostly active in twilight. Crepuscular is a term used to describe animals that are primarily active during Twilight, hence at Dawn and at Dusk.

Nocturnal animals generally have highly developed senses of hearing and smell, and specially adapted eyesight. Olfaction (also known as olfactics or smell) refers to the Sense of smell. In Psychology, visual perception is the ability to interpret information from Visible light reaching the Eyes The resulting Perception is also 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. A zoological garden, shortened to zoo, is an institution in which living animals are exhibited in captivity

Some animals, such as cats, have eyes that can adapt to both night and day levels of illumination (see metaturnal). WikipediaManual of Style (spelling, articles should conform to one overall spelling style of English typically the one most linked to the article topic (if it is geographic In animal behavior, metaturnality describes the behavior of sleeping partly during the daytime and partly during the night Others, e. g. bushbabies and bats, can only function at night. Galagos, also known as bushbabies, bush babies or nagapies (meaning "little night monkeys" in Afrikaans) are small Nocturnal

A person who exhibits nocturnal habits is referred to as a night owl; he or she is of the "eveningness" chronotype. Night owl is a term used to describe a person who tends to stay up until late at night Not to be confused with Bakhtin's Chronotope. Chronotype is an attribute of human beings reflecting whether they are alert and prefer to be active

See also

• Diurnal
• Metaturnal
• Scotobiology

References