Long Day's Journey Into Night Trivia Quiz

Answer: Diurnal

Pygmy marmosets hold the title of the smallest monkeys in the world and are native to the Amazon rainforest of South America. Adults typically measure 4.6 to 6.2 inches (11.7 to 15.2 cm). They have dense, brownish-gold, gray, and black fur that helps them camouflage in the trees in which they live. They feed on gum and sap from the trees and occasionally will eat fruit or insects.

To get the gum and sap, they use specialized, forward-turned lower incisors to chew into trees and extract the sap. This is a time consuming process and requires good visibility. Hence, they are primarily diurnal. At night, they choose to sleep on thin branches high in a tree which support their light weight but not those of potential predators.

Answer: Diurnal

Marine iguanas are reptiles found exclusively in the Galápagos Islands where they live in large colonies. They range in size from 1 foot (.3 m) to 5 feet (1.5 m) long. They are the only modern lizard in the world that forages in the sea. They eat seaweed and marine algae that they scrape off of rocks with their teeth. Because they get quite a bit of salt in their diet, their body can filter excess salt from their blood.

The waters near the Galápagos Islands are fairly cool (typically 52-73°F or 11-23°C). Being cold-blooded animals, the iguanas must bask in the sun to raise their body temperature. Hence, they are active primarily in the daytime. At night, without the sun's heat, their metabolism slows down, and they become inactive.

Answer: Diurnal

Eastern gray squirrels are medium-sized rodents that live in a variety of wooded environments. They are typically 16 to 20 inches long (40 to 51 cm) and have a distinctive, large bushy tail. They make their homes in natural tree dens or build nests of leaves and twigs high in the branches. Their diet consists mainly of nuts, acorns, seeds, buds, flowers, and fruit.

Eastern gray squirrels have eyes specialized for high light levels, providing excellent visual skills during the day. This helps them in diurnal activities which include climbing trees, navigating branches, and finding nuts. Being active during the day also allows them to avoid many effective night time hunters. They retreat to their dens or nests at night.

Answer: Nocturnal

The Virginia opossum is the only marsupial native to North America and lives throughout the continent. They are about the size of a house cat (15-24 inches or 38-60 cm long) and have a long pointed white face with a pink nose, black ears, and a long, scaly tail. They can use their tail to balance, grasp small objects, and even hang from it. They are omnivorous scavengers, eating almost anything from insects, fruits, and nuts to dead animals and garbage. As marsupials, females have a pouch on their abdomen where they carry their young.

The Virginia opossums are very slow and have few defense strategies against predators except rolling over and "playing dead". Being nocturnal helps them steer clear of the many daytime predators. Their eyes are well-adapted for low light conditions and this, along with a strong sense of smell, helps them do their foraging at night. During the day, they hide in dark, safe places such as a hollow tree or abandoned burrow.

Answer: Nocturnal

The kiwi is a flightless bird that lives in the forests of New Zealand. Kiwis are about the size of a chicken, standing 1.5 to 2 feet (0.5 to 0.6 m) tall. Kiwis have tiny wings and no tail, making them incapable of flight. Kiwis are also the only bird in the world with nostrils at the very tip of its long, sensitive beak. This allows them to sniff out worms, insects, and grubs underground. The female kiwis lay one of the largest eggs in proportion to their body size of any bird in the world; a single egg can weigh up to 20% of their body weight.

Historically, their nocturnal behavior was rooted in the fact that New Zealand used to have no land mammals; hence kiwis were hunted by diurnal birds of prey. Therefore, they adapted to a nocturnal way of life. Over time, they also evolved an exceptional sense of smell and hearing to make up for their poor eyesight. This also helps them during the night time hours. During day, they hide in burrows or hollow logs to sleep.

Answer: Nocturnal

Emperor scorpions are one of the largest scorpions in the world. These arachnids are native to the rainforests and savannas of West Africa where they burrow under rocks, logs, leaf litter, and in termite mounds. They can reach lengths of up to 8 inches (20 cm) and have a glossy, metallic black or greenish-black outer exoskeleton. Emperor scorpions have poor eyesight and rely on sensory hairs to detect vibrations in the environment where they hunt insects and other arthropods. They have a mild venom and a strong pinch.

They are cold-blooded animals and cannot regulate their own body temperature. Where they live, they face high daytime temperatures and intense sun. By being nocturnal, they minimize moisture loss and avoid overheating. They are also an ambush predator, so night gives them ample cover to hide and wait for prey which they can acutely sense arriving.

Answer: Crepuscular

The mountain cottontail is a common rabbit species found in the brushy and mountainous regions of the western United States and Canada. They are typically 11 to 15 inches (29-39 cm) long with smaller, rounded years and a white "cotton tail". They eat grass, bark, plants, and berries. When startled, they run a short distance into cover and freeze; if pursued, they hop away in a zigzag pattern to confuse the predator.

And it's the predators hunting them that makes them crepuscular in nature. By being active when the light is low, cottontails limit their confrontations with daytime hunters like hawks or eagles. And when it's not quite totally dark, the night time hunters like bobcats and coyotes cannot see very well. The low light also helps the cottontails' natural camouflage of grayish brown fur to blend in with their surroundings.

Answer: Crepuscular

The white-tailed deer is the most common and widespread large mammal in North America, found from southern Canada to South America. They have a reddish-brown coat in the summer that turns a grayish-brown in winter and they live in a variety of habitats. Their name comes from the bright white underside of their tail, which they raise and wave side-to-side as an alarm signal when they sense danger. They are around 3 feet (.9 m) tall and feed on leaves, twigs, fruits, nuts, acorns, grasses, crops, and even "weeds" like poison ivy.

White-tailed deer have evolved excellent senses that work well in low-light conditions for their crepuscular activities. The dim light helps them move between their bedding and feeding areas with a degree of natural concealment from predators that can see easily in bright light or very dark conditions. Finally, since they are ruminants, they need time to forage and rest to digest their food. During the day they can do that in a safe place.

Answer: Crepuscular

The common nighthawk is a medium-sized bird belonging to the nightjar family, not the hawk family, despite its name. They live in open areas across North and Central America. The birds measure about 9-10 inches (around 22 cm) in length and are most identifiable in flight by the prominent white patches on their long, pointed wings. They are aerial insectivores, feeding exclusively on flying insects such as mosquitoes, moths, beetles, and flying ants. They catch them with a mouth fringed with bristles they use like a net.

The main reason they are crepuscular is that almost all of the flying bugs that form their diet are active during twilight hours. To aid them in this endeavor, the nighthawks' eyes are large and have light-reflecting structures that help them see in dim conditions.

Answer: Cathemeral

The Eastern coyote is a canine found throughout the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. They measure 48-60 inches (1.2-1.5 m) in length and their fur ranges in color from silver-gray to reddish-brown or black. They live in a variety of environments from forests and rural agricultural areas to suburban and even urban areas. The coyotes are opportunistic omnivores and scavengers and will eat different things depending on seasons and availability. They use a complex system of howls, yips, and barks to communicate.

Eastern coyotes are primarily cathemeral because they display significant amounts of activity, including feeding and traveling, during both daylight and darkness. They have a tendency to try to avoid humans if possible, so that impacts their activities. In rural or wild areas, they are often more crepuscular or even diurnal. In contrast, in suburban or urban environments with high human presence, they tend to become almost exclusively nocturnal to avoid confronting humans.

Answer: Cathemeral

The Eastern gray kangaroo is a large marsupial that lives in Australia. Adult males can reach up to 7.5 feet (2.2 m) in height. They have gray-brown fur, large ears, and a long, thick tail they use for balance. They are found across the eastern third of Australia in open woodlands, grasslands, and coastal areas where they feed on grass and shrubs. The kangaroos can hop and they can do so at incredibly fast speeds to cover these grassland distances. As a marsupial, the babies grow inside the mother's pouch before emerging.

They can forage for food at any point during the day or night to maximize nutrient intake, which is especially important given their size and energy requirements. Being cathemeral also helps them regular their internal temperature depending on the heat of their environment during the differing seasons.

Answer: Cathemeral

Meadow voles are small rodents found throughout much of North America. They have a rounded body, a blunt nose, small eyes, fur-covered ears, and a short, furry tail. Adults generally measure between 4 to 7 inches (101-177 mm) in length. They live in meadows, fields, marshes, and other areas that are near a water source. Voles are herbivores and eat a large amount of their body weight in food each day. They form the base of the food chain for a wide range of predators in their ecosystem.

Due to their low-nutrient, high-fiber diet of grass and their very high metabolism they must eat every few hours to obtain energy. This constant hunt for food causes them to be cathemeral in nature. This routine also helps keep them from having a predictive pattern for the animals that are hunting them.