Animal Rhythms

Looking closer at how, where and when animals are active is an important part for me. I want to design something for animals and nature and I need to look closer at how they behave. I have been mapping daytime and night-time and I had two walks to record the activities.

I have looked at the animal activities I can see (not including what happens underground) and then divided them into Mini-beasts, Squirrels, Dogs, Birds, and Fishes.

Picture 1. Daytime activities

Picture 2. Night-time activities

On my walks, I took photos and videos to show what animal activities I found. I would say that the main difference is that during the night the mini-beasts are more active. The birds are not as active late at night and there were barely any dogs out when I was out around 9-11 pm. I could not see any squirrels at that time either. By the sea, I saw people fishing, I think it is a good time to catch fish where there isn't much disturbance around.

DAYTIME:

1. I saw a woodlouse hiding behind the bark, I got the feeling that they usually are not out during the day.

2. Crows and seagulls search for food every day. The food that humans drop or throw seems to be very attractive to them.

3. You can see many squirrels during the day around the areas with trees.

4. I found some slugs under a blue piece of plastic, I turned it around and the slugs started moving away from the sunlight.

5. Earthworm, I saved this one it seemed lost in the middle of the path and was at risk of drying out. I put it where there is soil so it can hide from the sun.

I have a few videos to show the daytime animals as well:

NIGHT TIME:

I found many different mini-beasts at night time: red and grey woodlice, slugs, centipedes, snails, and different types of spiders. There were so many of them in the evening, they come out of their hideout sports in the bark and different cracks and corners. This shows that there is a completely different rhythm of life in the night vs daytime.

DIAGRAM:

In this diagram, I want to show the different animals I saw on my walks and how active they are in day time vs night-time. I drew their footsteps or snail trial (the slug and worm are similar to snail trail) to represent how active they are during the set time of the day. You can see that the mini-beasts are less active during the day and more active at night. The birds, squirrels and dogs are more active during the day.

HOW IT HAS INSPIRED ME:

From this research I have been inspired to design something that is suitable for the nocturnal animals and the diurnal animals. A place to hide with good hideout spots such as there is in the bark of the tree. All of these animals like to be around and in the trees where they have their own paths and ways to move around. Even the earth worm work in the soil around the tree.