Anita Sanchez - Wait Till It Gets Dark

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To Lola, and to all the kids who have shared nature with us.

Night. Its scary out there. Time to go inside or not...?

Theres a dark and mysterious world waiting to be exploredand its just outside your door. By day, its as familiar to you as the back of your hand: the same old yard, street, and houses you see every day. But just wait till it gets dark!

People usually get up in the morning, eat meals and do stuff during the day, then sleep at night. But what if it was the other way around? Imagine waking up in the evening, having lunch at midnight, and climbing into bed as the sun rises. Thats what nocturnal animals do. Instead of sundown being the end of the fun, dusk is the time when everything begins.

For these creatures, night is the world they live in. Under the comforting cloak of darkness, they can hide from predators, hunt dinner, find mates. But when its pitch dark, how do they do what they have to do? How do they keep from bumping into trees or falling off a cliff?

Nocturnal animals experience the world differently than we do. They can talk with their noses, taste smells in the air, and see light in different ways. They can smell scents and hear sounds that we cant.

Humans have keen senses, toowere just not used to using them. Like playing the piano or learning to kick a soccer ball, sensing the night takes practice! We might not have eyes exactly like an owls, or a nose as sharp as a wolfs, but humans can see, smell, and hear in the dark much better than we realize.

So get ready to step into the darkness! Maybe its not that scary after all. Youll challenge your senses to the max as you explore. Everything you see, hear, touch, smell, and even taste will be different than in daytime.

Because everything changes when the sun goes down.

CHAPTER 1

What can you see when it gets dark? Nothing, right?

Wait a minute.

In just sixty seconds of darkness, your eyes change. Ever walk into a darkened movie theater? At first, youre almost blind. Slowly, objects start to appear out of the blackness, until you can find your friends and choose a seat. Your eyes adapt to the low level of lightjust like an owls eyes.

On a chilly, moonless night, a great horned owl perches on a branch. Hours of darkness pass as the owl waits motionless, silent. Suddenly the owl tenses as its huge golden eyes glimpse a tiny movement in the leaves on the forest floor: the twitch of a mouses tail. Instantly, the owl takes flight, wings and talons outstretched.

A great horned owl, hunting for its prey in a midnight forest, has the same problem you do in the theaterto find the way in low levels of light. An owl has to fly through a maze of trees, avoiding twigs, branches, rock, and other obstacles. With split-second timing, the owl targets a small rodent hidden in deep shadow.

Of course, an owls face is covered with feathers while yours is covered with skin. But on the inside, your eyeballs work pretty much the same.