Field knowledge
Moon phase & animal activity
Moonlight changes how animals behave at night. Reading your camera-trap data against the moon helps explain the patterns you see.
A bright full-moon night is a different world from a dark new-moon one. For many species, moonlight is a trade-off between finding food and being seen — and that shows up in when they move.
- Prey species — many small mammals reduce activity under a bright moon, when they are easier for predators to spot ("lunar phobia").
- Visual predators — some hunt more on bright nights, when they can see; others shift to the cover of dark nights.
- Timing — activity peaks can move earlier or later in the night depending on moonrise and cloud cover, not just the phase.
Why it matters for your data
If detections for a species dip on certain nights, moon phase may be part of the story rather than a real change in abundance. Factoring it in — alongside weather and season — makes your activity patterns easier to interpret and your surveys easier to compare. The platform's activity charts let you spot these rhythms; a dedicated moon-phase view in analytics is on our roadmap.
