34 L4-Animals at Night

Oxford Read and Discover level 4 Animals At Night

Introduction At night, when you go to bed, thousands of animals are moving around outside in the dark. Many of them do not sleep all night! Do you know any animals that come out at night? How do animals see in the dark? What animals can you see here? Discover! Now read and discover more about amazing animals at night!

Chapter 1 Life at Night When the sun goes down, it gets dark and the air gets a lot colder. For many people, it's time to go to sleep, but a lot of animals only come out at night. They are called nocturnal animals. The opossum is a nocturnal animal. At night, it looks for plants and small animals to eat. In the day, it hides and goes to sleep. Discover! The armadillo is a nocturnal animal, and it sleeps for more than 17 hours in the day! Nocturnal animals aren't the only animals that come out at night. Some animals, like the tiger, come out in the day and at night. Other animals, like the rabbit, only come out in the morning when it's getting light, and in the evening when it's getting dark. Some animals come out at night because there are not so many predators animals that want to hunt and eat them. Some animals find more food because they eat other animals that come out at night. In very hot places, it's sometimes too hot to come out in the day.

Chapter 2 Special Senses Many animals that come out at night have special senses. This means that they can see, hear, touch, smell, or taste very well. These special senses help them to find food and to stay safe in the dark. Wild dogs, like foxes, usually hunt in the dark. They have a big nose, and an amazing sense of smell that helps them to find food. A fox can smell mice through up to 12 centimeters of snow! Foxes also have very big ears that they can move, so they can hear very well all around them. Raccoons are nocturnal animals that have long fingers and a very good sense of touch. When they are hunting for food in water, they use their fingers to find fish and frogs. Many nocturnal animals can see much better than people in the dark. They have very big eyes that let in lots of light. Discover! A tarsier's eye is bigger than its brain! It can see very well in the dark.

Chapter 3 Flying at Night In the day, owls stay in trees or buildings, but at night they hunt for food. Owls can see very well in the dark, and they also have an amazing sense of hearing. They listen for little noises from their prey rabbits, mice, and other small animals that they like to eat. Then they fly down and catch them in their sharp claws. Many owls have soft feathers on their wings, so they can fly very quietly. Their prey don't know that they are coming! Most types of bat are nocturnal. At night they look for fruit and flowers, or they hunt for insects, fish, and mice. Bats can see and smell very well, and many bats have a special sense called echolocation. This helps them to find food in the dark. Bats make special noises when they fly. The noises bounce off things and come back as echoes. These echoes tell bats where things are and how big they are. In the day, bats hang upside down and stay in caves, trees, and buildings. Discover! Bats are the only mammals that can fly!

Chapter 4 Ocean Animals Some fish live near the top of the ocean in the day and then they swim down to the deep ocean at night. Other fish swim up to the top of the ocean at night, and they look for plankton— very small animals that swim up to the top of the ocean every evening to find food. Plankton are food for fish like the lantern fish. The lantern fish stays down in the deep ocean in the day, but when the sun goes down it swims to the top of the ocean. It feeds near the top of the ocean at night, and then swims back down before morning. Discover! The lantern fish has lights on its body when it swims. The whitetip reef shark also comes out at night. It stays in caves down in the deep ocean in the day, and doesn't move very much. Then at night, it comes out to hunt for fish and octopuses.