Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Past researches showed that during the dinosaur age mammals used to be creatures of the night. Fear of being eaten up by the giant predators kept mammals from roaming around during the day. It was only after the dinosaurs went extinct that mammals started coming out during the daytime. Now a new study done by scientists from the University of California, University of Berkeley and Boise State University shows that increased human activity is making other mammals nocturnal. Kaitlyn Gaynor, co-author of the study and a doctoral researcher at the University of Berkeley said, “Humans are now this ubiquitous terrifying force on the planet and we are driving all the other mammals back into the night-time”.

The study, published in the journal Science involved 62 species around the globe. It claims that being near humans made most of the species show an abrupt switch to being nocturnal. Scientists suggested this is probably because other mammals fear to be poached, hunted and killed or that they require more space to carry on with their tasks but sharing spaces with humans have turned them into night owls. Gaynor explains that this shift affects interactions between species too. She says that the coyotes in California are now switching from feeding on daytime creatures like squirrels to nocturnal creatures like mice, rats, and rabbits, sable antelopes in Zimbabwe are not able to access water during the daytime because they are becoming nocturnal. She continues, “It is likely that we are going to need to preserve wilderness areas that are entirely free of [human] disturbance to protect really vulnerable species, and for species that can’t shift their activity to the night-time or where increased nocturnal activity is having negative consequences, we may need to restrict human activity to certain times of the day so we leave some daylight hours for animals to do their thing.”

For the study, the scientists tracked the everyday activity of the animals. They said that the study involved medium- and large-bodied animals because their need for space could be analyzed easily and that they were more likely to have a conflict with humans. Researchers agree that humans are at the forefront of what is driving the animals to become nocturnal but it could be possible that factors like how much food is available and light pollution could be involved too.  Though experts suggest that more research needs to be done to study the effects of human disturbances on the animals thoroughly they do stress that we should consider it as a warning.

By Purnima

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *