There are many animals out there that are
considered nocturnal. What this means is that they
do most of their hunting or gathering during the
nighttime, and sleep during the day. In some
cases, like in the bat or the possum, their sense
of vision is so poor that going out in the daytime
is a dangerous option to select. They put
themselves at risk because they simply cannot see
anything at all, and so it is much wiser for them
to rely on their other senses which give them an
advantage during the dark.
While this is true of some nocturnal animals, not
all are blinded during the daylight. Instead, they
choose to hunt and gather at night because it is
not only safer for them, but because their life
pattern has been built in this way. Some creatures
know how to slink and slither along so that they
are not detected is easily, and the darkness gives
them an advantage in being able to do so. A great
example of this is the rat.
Learn how rodents communicate using pheromones.
A rat can actually see quite well during the
daytime. For those who have these rodents as a
pet, they can take the rat out of the cage and put
it in one of those little plastic balls that
allows it to run around the house, and it will
gladly do so. It has no issue with being awake
during the day.
However, the rat prefers to do its work at night.
There is an instinctual design in a rat that makes
it so that being out at nighttime gives it an
advantage, or at least protects it from the
dangers that could occur should it be detected by
other animals.
Not every animal sees well at night, not like a
cat for example, so our rat has some advantages in
the fact that its sense of smell helps it to find
food and avoid potential predators. The lack of
vision that the darkness creates is a trade-off to
this rodent, because it understands that neither
it or the predator hunting it may be able to see
very well. This levels the playing field, but also
gives the rat an advantage because of its
incredible sense of smell.
During the daylight, the rat is quite visible to
any creature that should get an eye on it,
including human beings. A rat is doing all that it
can to avoid the possibility of being caught and
killed, so doing its work at night is when you are
most likely to see it out and about.
We can answer: Does poison make rodents thirsty and die outside?
Once again, for those who have had a rat as a pet,
they are fully aware that as darkness descends on
their home that the rat will come to life and
begin its process of eating and trying to escape
from its cage. These are daytime sleepers that
prefer the advantages afforded it at nighttime,
and that is when you will most likely see them
out.
For more information, you may want to click on one
of these guides that I wrote:
How much
does rat removal cost? - get the lowdown on
prices.
How
to get rid of rats - my main rat removal
info guide.
Example
rat trapping photographs - get
do-it-yourself ideas.
Rat
job blog - learn from great examples of rat
jobs I've done.