Easy Like Sunday Mornings Trivia Quiz

Foxes are typically seen prowling about at night on the lookout for whatever food is available. Not only can foxes be found rummaging through bins across the world's villages, towns and cities but certain species can also survive in harsh landscapes such as deserts and the polar regions.

When it comes to sleeping habits, foxes prefer to take a nap in the safety of their underground den. Foxes, like humans, tend to sleep for around eight hours a day but this can increase in the winter.

Lions are very adaptable creatures and they exhibit a number of traits that allow them to survive in dry, hot deserts. Lions do not have a significant number of sweat glands so it is only natural that they become more active at night when the desert environment cools down. Male lions tend to sleep for a longer amount of time than female lions (make of that what you will) but in general this magnificent beast takes it easy for more than two-thirds of the day.

The koala is a type of marsupial that famously exists on a diet of eucalyptus leaves but this furry, tree-dwelling creature does occasionally choose to vary its diet by feasting on other Australian plants such as the tea tree. Eucalyptus leaves are very hard to digest but the koala succeeds in doing so, in part, by sleeping for up to twenty hours a day to conserve energy. Every day is an easy Sunday as far as the koala is concerned!

Our feline friend, the domestic cat, has become so associated with sleeping that there is an expression named after them to describe frequent but short spells of rest - cat napping! Cats are crepuscular, a term used to describe an animal that is most active at dawn and dusk.

A theory has been put forward that a cat's crepuscular nature aids them in hunting prey (birds at dawn and rodents at dusk).

Seals have the ability to sleep both on land and whilst in water but in order to improve their chances of avoiding predators they tend to only drift off to the "land of nod" for an hour or two at a time. Seals are mammals that breathe air (they do not have gills like a fish) and so when they are asleep out in the open waters they tend to remain close to the surface with just their snout poking out into the air above.

This is called "bottling".

Ducks - a type of waterfowl - are vulnerable to predators whilst they sleep and so these commonly seen birds have a number of tricks up their sleeve in order to help them survive their period of shut-eye. Ducks tend to sleep in groups (safety in numbers) and they have evolved in such a way that they can sleep with only half of their brain powered down.

This allows the ducks at the boundary of the group to sleep with one eye open, keeping an eye out for those pesky predators. That really does bring a new meaning to the term "shut-eye"!

Rats are commonly thought of as nocturnal creatures but their sleeping patterns are somewhat more complicated. Rather than fixed routine, the sleeping pattern of a rat is influenced more by factors such as safety from predation and sufficient food availability. Rats tend to sleep for about half of the day, cat-napping in order to avoid, amongst other creatures, cats!

Both being "big cats" it is not a surprise that the sleeping habits of a tiger are very similar to those of the lion. Keeping cool and conserving energy is very much the goal, with the tiger tending to relax for long periods of time under rocks or in amongst grass and trees.

The picture celebrates the white tiger, a Bengal tiger with a genetic mutation that causes the absence of a biological pigment that is responsible for the red and yellow colours needed to create a typical orange coat.

The rhinoceros or rhino doesn't require as much sleep as some other animals that live in hot environments; they tend to only require approximately eight hours of sleep per day. As can be seen in the picture, when rhinos take the opportunity to slumber their feet tend to curl.

Dogs, one of humankind's most trusted companions, can be seen "catching flies" for a little over half of every day. Animal behaviour is studied across many species but it is particularly well-developed for dogs. One area of dog behaviour relates to how our canine pals sleep and there are different positions such as the "Lion's Pose" and the "Belly Up" which may help give us an insight into how a dog is feeling.

Pigs are important livestock on many farms and it is essential that a farmer ensures that the right conditions are present for pigs to sleep well and thrive. Pigs can often be seen sleeping in close contact with each other in formations called piles. On occasions where piles do not form, it could indicate to the farmer that the pigs are too warm.

It doesn't take much to disturb a goat from its slumber as they are very sensitive to stimuli such as sound. For the most part you would be unlikely to see a goat sleeping as the bulk of their sleeping takes place in the dead of night for a rather short period of around five hours. They do however drift off for short spells throughout the day.