Nocturnal
animals have many adaptations to help them find their way at
night. Here are some suggestions to help your students better
understand some of the tools that these animals use to find their
prey in the darkness.
Night
Eyes Activity
Items
you need for this activity:
Paper and
pencil
Two hard boiled eggs or plastic Easter eggs
Two oranges
Two grapefruits
Two apples
Many night
time creatures have large eyes. These large eyes allow night creatures to
absorb great amounts of light so they can find their prey and avoid predators
in the darkness. How big would your eyes have to be if you were a great horned
owl?
As a class
exploring this concept you could set out several objects, such as eggs, oranges,
apples, and grapefruites. Have each student hold them up to their eyes and
guess which one they think would be closest to how big their eyes would be
if they
were a great horned owl, and why.
Night
Ears Activity
Some animals,
such as microbats, depend on their ears to find their food in the dark. Microbats
use echolocation to locate their prey and navigate their night time world.
Many nocturnal animals have very large ears.
How would
you feel if you had very large ears like some bats?
How would the world sound if you did have large ears?
Items you
need for this activity:
2 one gallon
plastic milk jugs
2 plastic cups
Scissors
Cut the bottom of the plastic milk jugs and plastic cups
Have
the students hold up the milk jugs and cups to their ears and notice
the difference
in
how well they can hear.
Night
Noses Activity
Some
animals use their noses to find food in the darkness. Do you think
that you could identify food by smell alone?
Items
you need for this activity:
3
paper bags per group or child
1 cookie per group or child
1 orange per group or child
1 chocolate bar per group or child
1 blindfold per group or child
Paper and pencil
Have each group
place a different kind of good item, such as a cookie, an orange, or a chocolate
bar, one each, in unmarked brown paper bags.
Have each group blindfold one child in the group at a time and
hand them a bag to identify. Once they have tried to figure out
each food smell let them in on how well they did. Keep track of
how many children could smell and identify each of the food smells.
