I remember someone telling me this. That snakes don’t come out at night.
I have never heard anything else about this, one way or the other.
Pit vipers are certainly nocturnal (most of them, anyways, according to Wikipedia).
Snakes, and all reptiles and amphibians, are ectothermic (cold-blooded), and cannot function when the ambient temperature is too low.
Since daylight is usually warmer, that is the time most reptiles will be active. That does not mean they are completely non-nocturnal, but it is highly unlikely you would encounter any reptiles at night.
Most snakes do not come out at night. Most reptiles in fact. They require heat from the sun to raise their body temperature so that they can metabolize, etc. Of course there are exceptions. But most reptiles are diurnal.
I’d say the majority are crepuscular.
There are large numbers of nocturnal snakes. The pit vipers, most pythons and miscellaneous other snakes will quite happily hunt at night.
That’s wrong for the vast majority of people in the the world. Most people live in the tropics/subtropics and nocturnal reptiles are commonplace.
Moral: don’t assume the whole world is like your backyard. It isn’t.
diurnal - active mostly in the daytime
I have often seen snakes at night here in southern Australia. Usually hot nights in summer, but even once on quite a cool, rainy night. No-one around here would drop their snake guard just because of nightfall. You are less likely to see them at night, so that would also skew the statistics of when they are seen.
On the plus side, this means that you are less likely to see them.
On the downside, it means you are less likely to see them. :eek:
Turtles and most lizards are diurnal. Some snakes are diurnal, examples in the US would be green snakes, racers, and garter snakes, but most seem to be crepuscular, moving at dawn and dusk, particularly dusk. The most effective way to hunt for most snake species in the US is to drive slowly on rural roads just after sunset.
Some turtles and most lizards are nocturnal. The great thing about living in water is that the temperature remains pretty constant. So most turtles are active any time. It’s really only those few turtles living in areas cold enough that they need to sunbathe to remain active that are restricted to daytime activity.