Consider the following fauna: How many of the above are generally nocturnal or most active after sunset?

Answer: (b) Only two

Civet and sambar are night-active; the macaque is active by day.

Statement by statement

1. ✗ DIURNAL The lion-tailed macaque forages in the rainforest canopy by day.

2. ✓ NOCTURNAL The Malabar civet (critically endangered, possibly extinct) is a night animal, like all civets.

3. ✓ MOSTLY NOCTURNAL Sambar feed mainly at night and at dusk and dawn.

The idea

Animals are diurnal (active by day), nocturnal (by night) or crepuscular (at dawn and dusk). The pattern follows from how the animal finds food and avoids danger.

Monkeys find fruit by colour vision → need daylight → diurnal → Civets hunt small prey by smell and avoid bigger predators → nocturnal → Sambar avoid heat and tigers → feed at night, dawn and dusk

Why the others are wrong

(a) Keeps only the civet; sambar are also active mainly after dark.

(c) Adds the macaque — monkeys are day animals.

The trap

Deer seem like daytime grazers. Sambar, the largest Indian deer, are mostly nocturnal.

Also know

Lion-tailed macaque: lives in the rainforest canopy of the Western Ghats, Endangered. Malabar civet: Western Ghats, Critically Endangered. Sambar: the largest Indian deer and the main prey of the tiger. Other night animals of India: slender loris, pangolin, flying squirrels, most owls and bats.