Consider the following fauna:
- 1.Lion-tailed Macaque
- 2.Malabar Civet
- 3.Sambar Deer
How many of the above are generally nocturnal or most active after sunset?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (a) Only one
UPSC's official answer: (a) · the answer UPSC accepted, and the one that counts in the exam
What we believe is right: (b)
- The lion-tailed macaque is a day-active, tree-dwelling monkey, so it is not counted on any reading. The Malabar civet is nocturnal and is the one animal UPSC's key counts.
- The sambar is the disputed one. The Kerala Forest and Wildlife Department describes it as 'primarily nocturnal, grazing in open areas at night and seeking refuge in the forests during the day', and Museums Victoria says sambar 'are active at dawn and twilight (crepuscular) and night (nocturnal)'.
- The stem asks for animals 'generally nocturnal or most active after sunset'; a deer whose activity peaks at dusk and through the night satisfies it, which makes two, option (b).
- UPSC's key counts one; it presumably treats the sambar's daytime grazing in undisturbed forest as making it neither generally nocturnal nor mainly active after sunset.
UPSC's key counts only the Malabar civet; official and museum descriptions of the sambar as nocturnal or crepuscular make it two, giving (b). In the exam, learn each species' activity pattern from an official or IUCN description rather than from general impressions.
- Kerala Forest & Wildlife Department: Fauna (Sambar Deer) ↗“Sambar deer are primarily nocturnal, grazing in open areas at night and seeking refuge in the forests during the day to escape the heat and predators.”
- Museums Victoria Collections (State of Victoria, Australia): Sambar, Rusa unicolor ↗“They are active at dawn and twilight (crepuscular) and night (nocturnal).”
This box is Minimalist IAS's analysis, with its sources; it does not change UPSC's answer.
UPSC's key counts one animal: the Malabar civet, a secretive night-time carnivore of the Western Ghats. The lion-tailed macaque is a day-active, tree-dwelling monkey. The sambar is not counted: it feeds mainly at dusk and by night but is also seen grazing by day in quiet protected forests, and the key treats this mixed pattern as not 'generally nocturnal'.
- ✗ 1. The lion-tailed macaque, endemic to the evergreen forests of the Western Ghats, is arboreal and diurnal: its troops feed and move through the canopy by day.
- ✓ 2. The Malabar civet is nocturnal and so elusive that researchers have to search for it at night; it is among India's most threatened mammals.
- ✗ 3. The key does not count the sambar. Its activity peaks at dusk and through the night, but in undisturbed forests it is also active by day, and the key treats this crepuscular, mixed pattern as falling short of 'generally nocturnal'.
Remember · Malabar civet: nocturnal, Western Ghats, Critically Endangered. Lion-tailed macaque: diurnal, arboreal, Western Ghats endemic. Sambar: largest Indian deer; most active at dusk and night, also seen by day — not counted as nocturnal in UPSC's key.
Sources
- Wildlife Trust of India, Searching for India's most endangered mammal ↗ · reference work “Since Malabar civets are nocturnal, the chances of sighting them at night are high, therefore, I had to keep up the search even at night”
- Animal Diversity Web (University of Michigan), Macaca silenus ↗ · reference work “Lion-tailed macaques are arboreal and diurnal. They travel in a family group consisting of 10 to 20 members, but there can be as many as 34 members”
- Kerala Forest & Wildlife Department: Fauna (Sambar Deer) ↗ “Sambar deer are primarily nocturnal, grazing in open areas at night and seeking refuge in the forests during the day to escape the heat and predators.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2023, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·