The scene we saw early one morning on the plains of the Serengeti of Tanzania told a story of nighttime slaughter. A pride of about eight lions had encountered a herd of wildebeest, and with great skill, the lions had dispatched over half a dozen of the horned beasts. When we arrived, the lions had already eaten their fill and were relaxing amid the carcasses.

Both lions and wildebeests can be active during the day, but both species choose the cover of darkness as well — wildebeests trying to avoid lions and lions trying to make dinner of wildebeests — nighttime works for both. How, though, if they are not adapted to full nocturnal life?

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