When Animals Take the Night Shift

When Animals(ˈanəməl) Take the Night Shift

They’d rather eat in the dark than risk(risk) coming across one of us.

By William(ˈwilyəm) Brennan

Several years ago, Kaitlyn(kātələn) Gaynor and her colleagues(ˈkälˌēg) noticed an intriguing(inˈtrēgiNG
) pattern. It started with data(ˈdatə,ˈdātə) from Tanzania(ˌtanzəˈnēə), where motion-detecting(diˈtekt) cameras(ˈkam(ə)rə) captured a trend(trend): Antelope(ˈantlˌōp) that had once roamed(rōm) primarily(prīˈme(ə)rəlē) in the day were now roving(ˈrōviNG) more at night. As Gaynor(gānər), a doctoral(ˈdäktərəl) candidate(-dit,ˈkandiˌdāt) at UC Berkeley(ˈbərklē), and her fellow(ˈfelō) researchers discussed(dəˈskəs) the change, they realized that a similar(ˈsimələr) nocturnal(näkˈtərnl) shift had occurred in many other mammals(ˈmaməl), too. In Mozambique(ˌmōzamˈbēk), elephants(ˈeləfənt) had begun traveling on roads in the dark, when they were relatively(ˈrelətivlē) free of humans, and staying in the forest(ˈfär-,ˈfôrəst) by day; in Nepal(-ˈpôl,nəˈpäl), tigers were moving about more often by moonlight(ˈmo͞onˌlīt), while people slept; in Poland(ˈpōlənd), boars(bôr) living in a national park split their days evenly between waking and sleeping, while urban(ˈərbən)-dwelling(ˈdweliNG) boars were awake almost exclusively(ikˈsklo͞osəvlē) at night. Once the nocturnal(näkˈtərnl) phenomenon(,fəˈnäməˌnän) “was on our radar(ˈrāˌdär),” Gaynor told me recently, “we started seeing it, really, everywhere.” Everywhere is no exaggeration(igˌzajəˈrāSHən): In a paper published in June(jo͞on), Gaynor and her co-authors offered evidence(ˈevədəns) of nocturnal shifts in dozens of species(-SHēz,ˈspēsēz) that come into regular contact with humans, on every continent(ˈkäntnənt) but Antarctica(-ˈärtikə,antˈärktikə). Gaynor suspects(səˈspekt) that these behavioral changes are bringing with them rapid(ˈrapid) evolutionary(ˌevəˈlo͞oSHəˌnerē) change as well.

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https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/10/up-all-night/568291/