Light repels many other forms of life. They avoid light and seek darkness. They must have their own reasons to do so. Being seen by a predator could mean death. Light generally goes together with heat and water can be conserved by avoiding heat.
Darkness is associated with moisture and coolness. Animals in deserts, including humans - the nomadic tribes, avoid bright light and move about in twilight periods of the day.
Historically light has been equated with goodness, knowledge, hope. And darkness with evil. The holy bible mentions - "God is light and in Him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5 RSV). It is natural then that the "The Seven Days of Creation" began with the displacement of darkness: "The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; And God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. (Genesis 1:2-5 RSV)
And the Upanishadic prayer reads, "Tamaso ma jyotirgamay," "-Lead me to light from darkness".
Owls, scorpions, earthworms, lampreys (the cyclostomata), many kinds of bats, cockroaches, armadillo, bush baby (a squirrel sized cute looking small primates), k oala, wolf, loris, raccoon , rhinoceros, tiger, toads and some frogs, opossum, nightjar (a European bird which feeds on mosquitoes and moths). And roots of plants all avoid light. Think of the advantages to them in doing so.
There is an entire group of animals called crepuscular animals. This category of animals is most active during twilight. They avoid bright light and thus also the hot temperatures. They are active twice in a day at sunup and sundown i.e. at dawn and dusk. Examples of crepuscular animals are - the platypus, some rodents, most jungle cats, rattlesnakes and gila monsters, the poisonous lizards (Heloderma suspectum) mule deer, brown bears, wallaby, coyotes, foxes, porcupines, desert cottontails, black-tailed jackrabbits, and many songbirds.
Domestic cats sleep almost 15 hours a day and in the secure atmosphere in a human dwelling feel free to have "cat naps" almost any time of the day. In many zoos throughout the world, now "Nocturnal Houses" and the "Twilight World" exhibit nocturnal or crepuscular animals and these are proving very useful in dispelling misconceptions especially about bats and other nocturnal animals and bringing in awareness of the important role they play in nature.
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