The big-eyed, nocturnal creatures occasionally open their mouths as if ready to shout, but no sound humans can hear comes out.
Since the big cats are nocturnal, he said, they lie out in their shelters during the day and are more active in their larger play areas at night.
Well, first of all, you clearly need to brush up on your knowledge of desert-based nocturnal big cats, (because that's what a caracal is).
We were the first diners to arrive (a pattern our stomachs never got off East Coast time whereas the Big Easy is a nocturnal city), which gave us a chance to chat for a while with the bartender there.
Among the other bands scheduled to play on two stages at the Merriweather Post Pavilion are Deadmau5, Patti Smith, Empire of the Sun, Cut Copy, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Okkervil River, Big Sean, Two Door Cinema Club, Alberta Cross and the Bombay Bicycle Club.
Bird species that sing earlier in the dawn chorus at high latitudes have bigger eyes than those that sing later, and nocturnal primates have bigger eyeballs than species that are awake during the day.
Caretakers at the wildlife center in Chonburi Province do not bother to lock the cage of the slow loris, a nocturnal primate with big round eyes that lives up to its name.
"Does anyone know anything about owls?" he asked the (primarily primary school-age) audience, who dutifully raised their hands and offered the knowledge that they were nocturnal and had very big eyes to help them see in the dark.
Even more challenging is Tom Ford's forthcoming adaptation of the novel Tony and Susan by Austin Wright, renamed Nocturnal Animals for the big screen and about to receive its premiere at the Venice film festival.
