Are animals becoming more nocturnal?

sculptor

sculptor

Valued Senior Member
I recently read that due to human activity, more animals were becoming more nocturnal.

Your thoughts?
 
At least I am becoming more nocturnal. With 95 degree highs, it's about the only time I can get mosquito bitten in comfort, the little monsters...

I took the dog out two nights ago to wait for my son to get home and saw a bobcat, just walking down the street. Thankfully I saw it before he did and in time to get one hand on him and the other on my pistol before he triggered on the ghost. Again, thankfully, he didn't know what it was and hesitated.
 
With all of the light pollution, I'm wondering if animals aren't becoming less nocturnal.
 
I know, sideshowbob. Even out here in the sticks we can see light in the south from Austin, 45 miles away. If you want dark skies, you have to go 150 miles west.
 
Dr_Toad said:
I know, sideshowbob. Even out here in the sticks we can see light in the south from Austin, 45 miles away. If you want dark skies, you have to go 150 miles west.
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I drove from Chicago to San Diego once, never out of sight of a light during the night. (We rolled 24/7 with necessary stops.)
 
You have to get off the interstates, off the blue highways, and out into the country roads or desert, depending. There's a dark place in a little valley between San Antonio and Corpus Christi, but it's near a pig farm...
 
Conversely, in the countryside near where I live the farm population is thinning and you can hear the coyotes howling at night again. And the beaver population is apparently above what it was before the fur trade began. And the moose are moving in.
 
I envy you. I haven't seen beaver, wolves, moose or the aurora for many years. I don't miss the blackflies and crow-sized mosquitos, though..

Where are you? In Texas the best is a rainstorm, the worst a rattlesnake bite. Mostly...
 
sideshowbob said:
Conversely, in the countryside near where I live the farm population is thinning and you can hear the coyotes howling at night again. And the beaver population is apparently above what it was before the fur trade began. And the moose are moving in.
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Try 7th and Broadway, downtown St. Louis. That's the first place I saw a coyote in Missouri. Coyrats were never endangered.
 
Really strange.. I've heard the term quite a bit, but out of ‘satiable curtiosity I bowed to the Goog and searched.

They don't seem to know, unless you want them to corect ur spleing...

Don't be evil! Just be ignorant...

Back on topic, you're close enough to the river that you've got a decent chance of wildling visits. Winter is coming.
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Dr_Toad said:
Really strange.. I've heard the term quite a bit, but out of ‘satiable curtiosity I bowed to the Goog and searched.

They don't seem to know, unless you want them to corect ur spleing...

Don't be evil! Just be ignorant...

Back on topic, you're close enough to the river that you've got a decent chance of wildling visits. Winter is coming.
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"Coyrats" is a local term for coyotes who breed like rats. We go out every year when the leaves fall and thin out the population a bit. Five/six hundred of the invasive little bastards.
 
I know, we have to hunt them sometimes here, when they rip up pets and small stock. I just noted that while I have heard the term, it doesn't seem to be as common as coyotes in cities are these days.
 
Some research a few years back indicated that beaver were once diurnal - possibly mink as well. This would be a couple of centuries ago. There isn't much on the American landscape that looks and acts as it did in 1492 - flora or fauna.

We can mention the recent invasions of day-flying mosquitos from southern climes and distant continents, as well - the Aedes genus currently expanding in NA diversity under the influence of the Chinese Hoax includes species that prefer to live near people and prefer to bite in daylight, neither feature common to the native vampires.
 
In places I've seen beaver they seem to start their day at evening, take a break, and continue at dawn. Trees do seem to come down across the river at night, though. Don't go fast water canoeing with a hangover.

And what? Chinese hoax?

I'm sorry I asked already...
 
Dr_Toad said:
I took the dog out two nights ago to wait for my son to get home and saw a bobcat, just walking down the street.
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A women here was attacked by a rabid bobcat last weekend. She went all Rambo on it and killed the beast with her bare hands. She's now getting rabies shots.

I hope she has good insurance. I had to get them myself last year. It was expensive. Anyone care to guess what the hospital submitted to my insurance?
 
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