According to Genesis 1, on the first day of creation God called the light into being, he separated light from darkness, he called the light “day” and the darkness “night”, and he called it good. Most of us would agree that light is, indeed, good. Both literally and metaphorically light drives out the darkness and allows us to see so that we can find our way. And it is not only humans that value light—all of the natural world benefits from it.
Like humans, animals use light to navigate. Monarch butterflies use the sun to navigate when they migrate to Mexico. Other animals that use the sun for compass orientation include fish, birds, reptiles, ants, bees, and sandhoppers. Some of these, like the sandhopper (a type of small, terrestrial crustacean), are able to account for changes in the sun’s position during the day using their internal circadian clocks. Various animals use the moon or stars to navigate. Some dung beetles (e.g. Scarabaeus zambesianus) are able to navigate using polarized moonlight, while a different species of dung beetle (Scarabaeus satyrus) need for the Milky Way to be bright and clearly visible to navigate away from a dung heap.
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