Are felines nocturnal?

The answer to the question depends upon the species of feline that you are referring to and the circumstances under which they are living. There is no simple black-and-white answer to the question. For example, the domestic cat tends to be nocturnal or a better description is crepuscular which means active at dawn and dusk when prey is about.

Tiger at night. This is not real because there are no white tigers in the wild. Photo: Pixabay.

But domestic cats are also active during the daytime sometimes. They just tend to be more active when daylight is subdued or it is dark. But the domestic cat is only one species of about 36 (the number of cat species is still contentious). I'm not going to go through every single wild cat species to tell you whether they are nocturnal or not but I'll mention one or two to give you an idea about what I'm talking about.

The American bobcat is distributed across America except for a 'hole' in the middle of it near the Great Lakes so it is a very well known wild cat. Bobcats are primarily crepuscular like the domestic cat. They are most active in the few hours before and after sunset and sunrise. There are exceptions

Some studies have found that bobcats are mainly nocturnal while other reports have found that they may be active at any time of the day or that they are arrhythmic (without any pattern or rhythm). In some places bobcats are more active during the daytime in winter because they must spend more time searching for food. In essence it would seem that a bobcat's activity coincides with the activity of the animals that it hunts. That makes sense. As I said the answer to the question the title has to be nuanced.

Canada lynx. Photo: Pixabay.

Taking another well-known medium-sized wild cat species living in North America, the Canada lynx, this cat is primarily nocturnal although they may be seen moving about at any time of the day. The animals that they mainly prey upon, snowshoe hares, are basically nocturnal which is why the Canada lynx is also mainly nocturnal. Once again you can see that the activity of the cat is dependent upon the activity of the prey.

The ocelot is a very well known small to medium-sized wildcat. Its coat has made the coats of many rich and famous people in the past. They are primarily nocturnal but they also hunt during the daytime especially when the weather is cloudy and rainy. They may be entirely nocturnal in areas where they are hunted by people. That sentence would apply to the past in America because as far as I'm aware they are no longer hunted by people because they are protected in North America if they are still extant on that continent.

The mountain lion lives in both North America and South America. They have a huge range in terms of distribution. These cats can be found hunting at any time of the day or night. In most areas the peak activity is reported to be around dawn and dusk i.e. crepuscular. They rest during the middle of the day. Once again their activity levels coincide with that of their major prey animals. Therefore it is seasonal and it depends upon where they live. For example, in the Idaho Primitive Area they are active during daytime to hunt ground squirrels. Where humans are more active such as where they are logging timber, mountain lions avoid them by being more active at night.

The concept of wild cats being more active at night to avoid people is also apparent with leopards. And you will find that lions also behave like this when necessary. They tend to avoid people by becoming nocturnal. Lions are apparently primarily nocturnal but there are no hard and fast rules as mentioned. It depends on the availability of prey animals to kill to eat and the type of habitat where they live which provides cover when stalking. Activity levels also depend upon the seasons and temperatures. And lastly it depends upon whether they are disturbed by people.

There have been reports of lions becoming nocturnal to avoid trophy hunters killing them. In the Serengeti there are two major peaks of activity, one of which is just after dark and the other between two and four in the morning.

Lastly, as I'm just giving you an idea as to whether cats are nocturnal or not, I will mention the tiger. Once again, in response to the activity of people, in certain parts of the world they have become totally nocturnal. If they are undisturbed by people they can be seen to hunt at any time of the day or night. Once again, also, their activity levels depend upon the activity of their prey animals. In other words it mirrors the activity patterns of the animals that they kill to eat. For example, in Chitwan National Park both male and female tigers mainly travelled at night for about 10 to 12 hours.

If you want to read more about the wild cat species and whether they are nocturnal or not then I would suggest that you search for those details on the main website which you can access by clicking here.

Margay Photograph

This is an-in-your-face Margay photograph. It is a camera trap photograph, as you can see.  It is not a pretty picture of a margay in captivity. The cat is too close to the camera to be sharp. It had to be sharpened. I also added the text which is allowed under the license and I modified the tones as well. The photo is by Smithsonian Wild. Thank you for the license to publish it. The license to publish this photograph allows you to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work and to make derivative work.

Margay in Peru - photo by Smithsonian Wild under creative commons.

What about the appearance of the margay, which, by the way, is probably the best climber of all the world's cats, wild or domestic?

Showing long tail - Photo by siwild

This is a small, slender, lightweight cat with a long tail for balance. These attributes are all designed for living in trees (arboreal habits). The donut (doughnut in the UK) shaped spots interest me. They are very clear in this photograph. These are called "open spots". They are dark brown or black in color while the centers are pale.

The eyes are massive in comparison to the size of the head. Usually a cat's eyes are 8 times bigger than ours in relation to head size but the margay looks like an exception. They are even larger. This wild cat must be nocturnal. The flash of the camera trap photograph supports that. This individual cat was active at night. Research indicates that it is, in general, most active between 1am and 5 am.

The margay is similar in appearance to the oncilla and ocelot. However, it is smaller than the ocelot and has a longer tail despite very similar coat markings. See ocelot picture for comparison.

The fur of the margay is soft and thick. The margay expends energy at an unusually low rate when at rest.

Ocelot Picture

This is a camera trap photograph of an ocelot in Peru. The cat seems to be on a trail. Camera traps are set up at points that are regularly used by the animal being photographed. The ocelot is a medium sized wild cat that is about the size of the average dog.

Ocelot in Peru - camera trap photo by Smithsonian Wild - I added the words and improved quality.

The ocelot lives in Central and South America. At 2002 it was said to occupy Texas, USA (no longer).

It has one the most outstanding coats of all the wild cats. This resulted in it being widely persecuted for its pelt. The major threat now is habitat loss. Both are of course due to human activity. However it is assessed as Least Concern by the authorities (Red List™). This indicates that this species is not threatened with extinction at 2011.

The ocelot lives in a variety of habitats including tropical forest and its prey is usually small mammals such as rodents and possums. It also catches birds and lizards.

Ocelot habitat

Forest is the ocelot habitat. The forests are found in the areas indicated on the maps below. This is a Central and South American wildcat species. The type of forest varies: tropical and subtropical forest, tropical evergreen forest, dry thorn forest, semideciduous forest. The ocelot habitat also includes: mangrove and flooded savanna, abandoned cultivated areas turned to brush.


Ocelot range - map published under a Wikimedia commons license (see below)

This is another range or distribution map based on the Red List map:


View Ocelot Range 2009 in a larger map

The Ocelot habitat extends from the countries of South America through Central America and up into Mexico and even as far north as small regions of Texas where this wild cat's habitat comes to an end and mankind's habitat begins in earnest. When human population reaches a certain level it pushes out wild animals through habitat destruction usually due to commerce, the car, hunting etc.

In the USA the Texas Ocelot is considered "vulnerable" (VU) under the IUCN 2006 Red List (a list prepared to summarise the risk of extinction in the wild of species). Vulnerable means this cat is threatened in Texas. In the other Ocelot habitats the cat is considered "least concern" (at 2006) under IUCN. This chart shows the categries. Least concern is the "safest" (my word) form of status under the IUCN classification:



The Ocelot Habitat once extended to a landscape called the "Chaparral" in the US (gulf coast - Texas).

Another ocelot habitat is the back yards of people's homes in the USA as a number of people have domesticated the Ocelot. This wild cat is not much larger than a large domestic cat (see largest domestic cat breeds) and is therefore suitable for domestication if one believes in that sort of thing. Another wild cat that has been domesticated is the Serval.

Here is a picture of an example of Ocelot habitat:

Costa Rica - Paos Lagoon
Photo by by chrisulloa

Ocelot Habitat to Ocicat

• Picture of Ocelot habitat and range at heading - Made starting with Brion VIBBER's maps - see Wikipedia license.
• Picture of Costa Rica published under a creative commons license = Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License