Creatures of the Night Trivia Quiz

Answer: Firefly

Fireflies, beetles which belong to the family Lampyridae, are beloved creatures in North America and Eurasia. Though some species of firefly are diurnal and don't glow, most fireflies have bioluminescent organs in their bellies; they generate a cold light through chemical reactions assisted by the enzyme luciferase (derived from the Latin words for "light bearer"). Firefly larvae probably generate light in order to warn predators away, but firefly adults break out the fireworks at dusk to attract mates. (Technically, this makes them crepuscular rather than nocturnal.)

Since they don't bite or sting, catching fireflies and letting them glow gently on your hand is a beguiling way to spend a summer evening. Let's hope Gloria came around to them!

Answer: Bushbabies

Bushbabies are smallish primates from the family Galagidae that range across East Africa and the forests of southern Africa. They spend their nights eating fruit, insects, and any other small creatures they can catch; at the end of the night, they retreat to treetop nests shared with other members of their social groups.

The calls that woke Seretse were probably summons to the nest. Their incredible jumping ability (likely due to the design of their leg tendons), tough toenails, and long tails help them make the trees their own, while their big eyes (well suited to nighttime activity) remind people of babies, giving rise to their name.

Answer: Kiwi

The five species of kiwi (all in the Apteryx genus) are national symbols of New Zealand. The one Elisabetta spotted was a Great Spotted Kiwi (Apteryx haastii), the largest of these flightless birds at about 45 centimeters (or 18 inches) in height. The nostrils at the ends of their beaks would be hard to see on a dark and stormy night, but are a great help in finding and eating burrowing insects.

Meanwhile, kiwi eggs are huge: although the birds are approximately the size of chickens, their eggs can be up to five times the size of a chicken egg! This is awfully hard on the hens, but Great Spotted Kiwis believe in egalitarian parenting: both parents (whose monogamous relationship can last decades) take turns incubating the season's egg in their burrow.

Answer: Bats

Bats (which belong to any of 1100 species in the order Chiroptera) are the only mammals that can truly fly instead of gliding. Though some species of bats enjoy fruit and nectar, most eat insects, which they find through echolocation -- a type of sonar that allows them to detect their quarries by the way that high-pitched sounds echo from them. Bats live in large colonies, often found in caves or other dark places, and typically emerge from them at dusk to begin a night of hunting.

On a true "dark and stormy night," Emory probably wouldn't have spotted the bats: they don't like venturing out when the weather is bad. He's lucky the storms hadn't hit yet that night!

Answer: Skunk

Skunks, mammals from the Mephitidae family, are smallish creatures with distinctively striped fur, usually black and white. (Don't be fooled by the romantic misadventures of Pepe Le Pew in "Looney Tunes" shorts: a skunk does not really look much like a black cat with a white stripe down its back.) Species of skunk can be found all the way from Canada to the Patagonian region of South America, and even on some Pacific islands. As omnivores, they've easily adapted to rummaging through human garbage as cities have expanded into their territory.

The famous skunk smell is a self-defense mechanism: a skunk can spray its noxious chemical weapons from anal scent glands in order to discourage (and in some cases even temporarily blind) an attacker. They don't much like to do it, but sometimes people like Jin's fellow camper leave them no choice.

Answer: Gray wolves

The Gray Wolf (Canis lupus) historically had a huge range, across Europe, northern and central Asia, and North America. In modern times, as humanity has expanded its territory and refined its hunting methods, wolves have been killed or driven away: as apex predators (at the top of the local food pyramid), they have historically been threats to people and livestock alike.

In the wild, wolves typically hunt in small packs formed around a monogamous pair of mates; these packs guard their territories jealously from their neighbors. Wolves prefer to chase their prey so as to exhaust them and prevent them from fighting back, and they howl to communicate with other members of the pack. That moose must have wished it was in the dacha with Heloise!

Answer: Spectacled bear

The Spectacled Bear (Tremarctos ornatus) is named for the distinctive pale fur patterns on its face, which make it look a bit like it's wearing large black eyeglasses to match the coloring of the rest of its body. Found in a wide range of ecosystems across northern and western South America, this bear -- the only ursine species on the continent -- is also called the Andean bear.

They mostly eat fruit, leaves, and roots, although they do enjoy the occasional small mammal as well. Excellent tree climbers, they usually sleep high up during the day, and have often been known to flee humans by taking to the branches. Persistent poaching problems (they're targeted for their gall bladders) make this a sound survival strategy.

Answer: Pangolin

The eight species of pangolin come from the mammalian genus Manis; Ahmed probably saw a Chinese Pangolin (Manis pentadactyla), which ranges from northern India to Taiwan. A pangolin's impressive scales are made from the same stuff (keratin) as human fingernails, so a rolled-up pangolin is hard for a predator to attack.

These nocturnal insectivores rip into anthills and termite mounds with their sharp, long front claws; any insects attempting to flee down a tunnel are soon scooped up by the pangolin's impossibly long (up to 40 cm or 16 in) tongue.

Answer: Great horned owl

The Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) gets its name from tufts of feathers near its ears. Mostly gray or brown with white feathers at the throat, adults have a wingspan of over a meter (that's more than 39 inches)! Like other owls, they can turn their heads through a wide range of angles, and they like to wait in high places before coming down suddenly on their prey from above.

The Northern Hawk Owl is one of the few owl species that is primarily active during the day, so Englebert would have been unlikely to see it hunting at night. Bald eagles are also diurnal, and prefer fish to mice (although they certainly do enjoy mammalian prey when the opportunity arises). Nightingales, which are not native to the Americas, dine on fruit and insects; a mouse would be too large for them.

Answer: Leopard

The African leopard (Panthera pardus pardus) ranges all over Africa south of the Sahara. Their nighttime hunts pit them against a range of animals, from crabs to zebras; in the Serengeti National Park, they seem to dine mostly on impala (a type of gazelle). In order to defend their kills from scavengers, they often drag them up into trees where hyenas cannot follow -- hence the alarming view that greeted Bob.

With black-spotted, tawny coats, leopards are beautiful and distinctive beasts; relatives of the African leopard range all the way to China and Indonesia.