Title: Nocturnal Animals
1Nocturnal Animals
2What does nocturnal mean?
- This refers to animals that sleep during the
daytime and are awake during the nighttime. - They can be mammals or reptiles.
3The Eyes Have it!
- Nocturnal animals have special pupils that help
them see well at night. - Their pupils can sometimes seem to glow when
light shines on them.
4The Pupils!
- Their pupils come in different shapes.
- Some pupil shapes are better than others at
closing in bright light.
http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/kalahari/nightvision.
html
5A video on Nocturnal Cats
World's Best Series Wild Cats. BBC.
2001.unitedstreaming. 17 September
2006lthttp//www.unitedstreaming.com/gt
6Look at these eyes and see if you can guess the
nocturnal animal they belong to.
7Can you guess who I am?
http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/kalahari/nightvision.
html
8A Cuttlefish
http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/kalahari/nightvision.
html
9- The cuttlefish is a cephalopod that buries itself
in sediment by day and becomes active at night.
The pupil of its highly sensitive eye, which sees
as well as a human eye, is protected with a
flap-like appendage that can close completely in
bright light.
10Can you guess who I am?
http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/kalahari/nightvision.
html
11A Fruit Bat
http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/kalahari/nightvision.
html
12- Fruit bats are far from blind. In fact, they rely
primarily on their eyes for navigation -- unlike
most bats, who navigate by echolocation.
13Can you guess who I am?
http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/kalahari/nightvision.
html
14A Flying Gecko
http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/kalahari/nightvision.
html
15- Geckos have eyesight comparable to a cat, giving
them the best eyesight of all lizards. The flying
gecko has an unusual scalloped pupil. When fully
contracted, the pupil can close completely --
except for a few tiny pinholes where the
scalloped edges do not quite meet.
16Can you guess who I am?
http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/kalahari/nightvision.
html
17- Pit vipers use two senses to better locate prey
at night sight and a heat-detecting ability.
Deep pits, which lie on each side of the snake's
face between the nostril and the eye, are capable
of sensing the warmth given off by a human hand
held a foot away. Heat and visual data are sent
to the pit-viper's brain, where the two types of
data are transposed into a single image of the
prey.
18Can you guess who I am?
http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/kalahari/nightvision.
html
19http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/kalahari/nightvision.
html
20- So extraordinary is an owl's night vision, it can
spot a mouse creeping through the underbrush more
than a football field away on a moonless night.
21Can you guess who I am?
http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/kalahari/nightvision.
html
22http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/kalahari/nightvision.
html
23- The tarsier of Southeast Asia has the largest
eyes relative to body size of any living
creature. The eyes are so enormous that they
cannot be moved in their sockets. To compensate,
tarsiers can swivel their necks 180 degrees in
either direction. Though most nocturnal primates
eat insects, the tarsier likes meat and has the
vision, speed and reflexes to catch small prey in
pitch darkness.
24Nocturnal animals are fascinating!
25Works Cited
- All pictures and information obtained from
- NOVA Online
- http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/kalahari/nightvision.
html