When you settle into bed for the evening, another world awakens. Flying squirrels launch between trees, bats emerge from roosts and owls begin their silent hunts.

Your Lake County Forest Preserves provide the food, water, shelter and darkness these animals need during their night shifts. Despite their abundance and proximity, our nocturnal neighbors can seem mysterious. The dark obscures their unique activities.

Let’s peek behind the curtain.

Selected Links and Sources:

• “Bat Gardens & Houses,” Bat Conservation International
• Bats, Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR)
• “Bats 101,” Bat Conservation International
• “Behind the bandit mask,” Lake County Nature Blog
• Blue-spotted salamander, IDNR
• “Chiroptera,” Animal Diversity Web
• Coyote, IDNR
• “DarkSky’s Home Outdoor Lighting Assessment,” DarkSky International
• Eastern tiger salamander, IDNR
• “Echolocation,” National Park Service
• Every Acre Strong
• Horizons subscriptions
• Illinois moths, IDNR
• “Night Shift: Lake County’s Nocturnal Animals,” Fall 2025 Horizons
• “Skunk stories,” Lake County Nature Blog
• Southern flying squirrel, IDNR
• “The influence of human disturbance on wildlife nocturnality,” Science
• Virginia opossum, IDNR
• White-nose Syndrome Response Team
• White-tailed deer, IDNR
• “Why do animals’ eyes glow in the dark?”, NPR

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If you like what the forest preserves do for you, please considerdonating to the Preservation Foundation’s Every Acre Strong campaign for the Forest Preserves. Your gift will help create a $20 million endowment to protect the forest preserves you love, ensuring every acre of habitat we restore remains ecologically healthy. Forever. Learn more and give at LCFPD.org/endowment.

Subscribe to Horizons at LCFPD.org/horizons.

Have questions or comments? Send them to WordsOfTheWoods@LCFPD.org.

This episode of Words of the Woods was written, hosted and produced by Brett Peto, environmental communications specialist at the Lake County Forest Preserves. Featuring research and expertise from Jim Grego and Dan Sandacz. Scriptediting by Jeanna Martinucci, Kim Mikus and Rebekah Snyder. Music and sound effects from Storyblocks. Audio editing and mixing by Brett Peto. Episode cover art © Joe McDonald / McDonald Wildlife Photography.

Words of the Woods is a production of the Lake County Forest Preserves in Libertyville, Illinois.