Why do some amazing animals only come out at night? Because they are nocturnal creatures. Being nocturnal, they can reduce the risk of predation, hot day temperature and competition from other animals. The followings are 10 most beautiful nocturnal animals in the world.
10 Indian Flying Fox
Almost all species of bats are nocturnal creatures. There are 1000 different species of bats in the world. The Indian flying fox is an attractive species of bat that found in the forests of India, China, Nepal, Bangladesh and Maldives. The Indian flying bat is a large bat. They have long snouts, long toed foot with sharp claws and a wingspan of 1.5 meters.
The Indian flying fox is a fruit bat, feed exclusively on fruits. They travel long distances in searching for food at night. The large eyes with excellent night vision help them in long distant night flights. The cool night temperature also helps the bats to dissipate the body heat that generates during the flight.
9 Eyelash Viper
The eyelash viper is a nocturnal venomous snake that found in tropical rainforests of Central and South America. They come in a variety of colors including yellow, red, green and brown. The eyelash vipers are named after the modified scales over their eyes. They spend most of their time on small tree branches. They only hunt at night. The hemotoxic venom of eyelash vipers are fatal to human. They also use this venom to kill their prey.
Top 10 hunters in animal kingdom
8 Barn Owl
The barn owl is a strictly nocturnal bird that found on every continents except Antarctica. The barn owls are known for their distinctive heart shaped face and beautiful plumage. During daytime the barn owls remain hidden in quiet places. They only hunt at night. The barn owls have an acute sense of hearing and excellent eyesight. These qualities make the nighttime hunting of barn owls much easier.
7 Raccoon
The raccoon is a nocturnal, medium-sized mammal that found mainly in wooded areas across North America. They forage for food at night. The raccoons have excellent night vision and sense of hearing. They travel up to 18 miles in searching for food. It is also not unusual to see raccoons during daytime.
The raccoons are known for their beautiful dense fur with black mask. The black mask of raccoons helps to reduce glare. It aid them in forage for food at night. The raccoons eat almost anything they get such as insects, eggs, fishes, frog, nuts and fruits.
6 Gray Wolf
A howling wolf at the Moon may the first ever picture comes to your mind when talk about them. But there is no such connection between wolves and Moon. The truth is the gray wolves howl at night because they are nocturnal. The upward calls of gray wolves can reach a maximum distance of 16 km. So it is all about sending calls to long distances in the best projecting angle. The gray wolves send the calls for communication and marking their territory.
The gray wolf is the largest species of wolf in the world. They can be 3-4 feet in length and weigh up to 65 kg. The gray wolves become more active at night. They have excellent nocturnal eyesight and good tracking skill. The cool night temperature also lets the gray wolves to save body energy.
5 Red Panda
The red panda is a cat-sized panda that inhabits in the high mountains of Eastern Himalayas. They are also known as lesser panda and red bear cat. The red panda is also a well-known nocturnal creature. The red pandas spend most of the daytime in sleeping on high branches of trees. They only come down to the ground at night to search for food. The nighttime foraging help the red pandas to avoid the risk of attack from potential predators like snow leopard.
4 Red-eyed Tree Frog
The red-eyed tree frog is a colorful frog that inhabits in lowland rainforests of Central America and Southern parts of Mexico. The named derived from their large red eyes. They also have brightly colored green body. The red-eyed tree frogs are nocturnal animal. They spend most of the daytime camouflaged under the leaves and only become active at night. Once startled by a predator the red-eyed frog widely opens its huge red eyes to surprise the predator.
3 Slow Loris
The slow loris is a group of medium-sized, nocturnal primate that found in Southeast Asia. There are five different species of slow lorises in the world. The slow lorises are notable for their human like hands. This nocturnal species spends the daytime in sleeping on tree branches and crevices. At night slow lorises forage for food.
The human-like hands of slow lorises have a powerful grip with strong fingers. They can move quickly over the branches. The slow lorises mainly feed on small birds, reptiles, eggs and fruits. They also have an excellent sense of smell and it helps them to locate prey in the darkness.
2 Luna Moth
The Luna moth is a large nocturnal, moth that found in forested areas of North America. Luna moths are admired for their large attractive light green wings with yellow strips. The wingspan of Luna moths measures approximately at 5 inches. Luna moths only come out at night and circle around outdoor lights.
The larvae stage of Luna moths lasts for 3-6 weeks. During this stage they feed constantly on different types of trees including cherries, hazelnut, walnut and hickory. On adult stage Luna moths feed nothing. They only live for 7 days as an adult moth. Mating is the only task of an adult Luna moth in between the shortest period of life.
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1 Sugar Glider
The sugar gliders are exotic, nocturnal animals native to forests of Australia and Indonesia. They are named after their diet and capability of gliding. Their diet mainly consist of sugary fruits and vegetables. The sugar gliders also have a membrane between their wrist and ankles. It lets them to glide between the trees. Sugar gliders are very social and they considered as an excellent exotic pet in some parts of the world.
Sugar gliders are nocturnal. They sleep throughout the day hours and forage for food at night. The large eyes of sugar gliders enhanced for night vision. They also have an excellent sense of hearing for locating the prey in the dark such as insects and rodents.
