Bronx Zoo World of Darkness reopening
- Thread starter nczoofan
- Start date
USZOOfan42
Well-Known Member
What can we expect to see? (WOD)
Well, it’s uncertain for now.. but with a little bit of patience, I can only imagine what concept art would the inside of World of Darkness would look like.
For everyone clamoring for more details, I recommend checking back either tonight or tomorrow morning. The countdown that was on the page previously was scheduled to end 11 hours from now, so it wouldn't surprise me if a proper press release will come out at that time.
Understood, got that copied.
The unfortunate thing is that pretty much all the exciting species on this list are likely unavailable to be brought back.
USZOOfan42
Well-Known Member
Doesn’t the zoo have lorises bts? Also, maybe we will see something totally random like aardwolves (doubtful) or a rarity not found in the states like tarsiers (impossible, just giving an example). But who knows, it is the BRONX zoo we are talking about 
They continued to do so until the last Maxwell's died in 2015. They were with the Aardvarks.
~Thylo
I had suspicions this would happen when they started using it as an event space recently; it definitely seemed like a step towards turning it back into an exhibit space and Breheny was vocal about wanting to reopen it eventually, but... still, somehow, I'm shocked to have it official.
It is especially exciting as I have been attempting to schedule a trip to New York next summer for initially unrelated reasons and had resolved to make a stop at the Bronx... and by chance, that's the perfect window to experience this. Wow! Between this and seeing Secret Life of Reptiles and Amphibians at London, I feel like a good luck charm! (I know it means nothing, as UK zoos traditionally open new exhibits at Easter, but it is a good feeling!)
I look forward to seeing what plans for the exhibit come to fruition in specific. Aye-ayes are always a treat to see and very exciting, bats and sloth are stars of nocturnal houses when displayed and popular with visitors, and caiman will be fun, too!
I have attached the art from the Bronx Zoo website to this post for those who could not view it. The text is undersized because I had to zoom out a lot to get the full art. The animals actually scaled apart as I resized the window.
Brushtail porcupine is only held at Omaha right now in the US so not as likely, but they are around the EAZA. ZTL does not list a lot of holders of leopard cat worldwide and neither duiker is held outside Africa so those are least likely. Could red-flanked duiker be used as a substitute? Seems like we'll only miss a few from the quoted list.
Based on @ Zebraduiker's list posted here, the zoo also held short-tailed bats, and Seba's short-tailed bats are around in numbers. Pale spear-nosed bat are held at Miami and Pallas' long tongued bat at Moody Gardens and Evansville, with Miami and Evansville also holding Jamaican fruit bats, which are also held at Central Park Zoo within WCS, so I think it's very possible we see some of these bat species restored. Vampire bat were also held at WoD in the past according to older posts so always possible to replace one of the other bats. I could see us with a few species at least but it's not out of the question we end up with four or five.
Moholi bushbaby and Pygmy slow loris are mentioned and very around, with the former held within WCS and the latter is at the zoo but not currently on display. Night monkeys are possible but seem to have mostly disappeared from the AZA, although Omaha still has them. They also held one of the other slow lorises (is there a collective term? "Greater slow loris"?) in the past but they are no longer held in the US anywhere that I've heard, and unless they plan to import from the small EAZA population or Asia, very unlikely. If it happens, well... I will take it as a personal gift, at least.
Striped skunk are easy enough to acquire Brookfield has a Small Spotted Genet but I believe it's only one individual so unlikely to go, unless I am misinformed.
Naked Mole Rat are common. Spiny Mouse have five holders. I'm not sure what species is being referred to as "striped mouse". Rock cavy are gone as far as I know. Kenyan sand boa have a number of holders. Scorpions is vague enough to be obtained, and Marine Toads are easy to find. "Corn island boa" is another I'm not sure.
So there's a couple of dead ends here (duikers, rock cavy, greater loris, genet, brushtail porcupine, leopard cat) but really, I'd say the majority of the historic species could be reacquired enough for the character of the building to remain fairly similar. It's much better luck than I'd have expected for a building closed fifteen years ago. There are also additional nocturnal species not held that could possibly be acquired or moved here. I think we'll do great.
It is of course worth mentioning that the Bronx Zoo is a world famous name, and I'm sure they have a little more pull to bring in unique species if they think they can get a program rolling or form a consortium.
It is especially exciting as I have been attempting to schedule a trip to New York next summer for initially unrelated reasons and had resolved to make a stop at the Bronx... and by chance, that's the perfect window to experience this. Wow! Between this and seeing Secret Life of Reptiles and Amphibians at London, I feel like a good luck charm! (I know it means nothing, as UK zoos traditionally open new exhibits at Easter, but it is a good feeling!)
I look forward to seeing what plans for the exhibit come to fruition in specific. Aye-ayes are always a treat to see and very exciting, bats and sloth are stars of nocturnal houses when displayed and popular with visitors, and caiman will be fun, too!
I have attached the art from the Bronx Zoo website to this post for those who could not view it. The text is undersized because I had to zoom out a lot to get the full art. The animals actually scaled apart as I resized the window.
Caiman, sand cat, rodriguez fruit bats and mouse lemur all seem perfectly plausible. Bronx still has cloud rat elsewhere at the zoo, right? Could easily be moved here if appropriate. There are fat-tailed lemurs at Duke just as there are mouse lemurs so a possibility.
Brushtail porcupine is only held at Omaha right now in the US so not as likely, but they are around the EAZA. ZTL does not list a lot of holders of leopard cat worldwide and neither duiker is held outside Africa so those are least likely. Could red-flanked duiker be used as a substitute? Seems like we'll only miss a few from the quoted list.
Based on @ Zebraduiker's list posted here, the zoo also held short-tailed bats, and Seba's short-tailed bats are around in numbers. Pale spear-nosed bat are held at Miami and Pallas' long tongued bat at Moody Gardens and Evansville, with Miami and Evansville also holding Jamaican fruit bats, which are also held at Central Park Zoo within WCS, so I think it's very possible we see some of these bat species restored. Vampire bat were also held at WoD in the past according to older posts so always possible to replace one of the other bats. I could see us with a few species at least but it's not out of the question we end up with four or five.
Moholi bushbaby and Pygmy slow loris are mentioned and very around, with the former held within WCS and the latter is at the zoo but not currently on display. Night monkeys are possible but seem to have mostly disappeared from the AZA, although Omaha still has them. They also held one of the other slow lorises (is there a collective term? "Greater slow loris"?) in the past but they are no longer held in the US anywhere that I've heard, and unless they plan to import from the small EAZA population or Asia, very unlikely. If it happens, well... I will take it as a personal gift, at least.
Striped skunk are easy enough to acquire Brookfield has a Small Spotted Genet but I believe it's only one individual so unlikely to go, unless I am misinformed.
Naked Mole Rat are common. Spiny Mouse have five holders. I'm not sure what species is being referred to as "striped mouse". Rock cavy are gone as far as I know. Kenyan sand boa have a number of holders. Scorpions is vague enough to be obtained, and Marine Toads are easy to find. "Corn island boa" is another I'm not sure.
So there's a couple of dead ends here (duikers, rock cavy, greater loris, genet, brushtail porcupine, leopard cat) but really, I'd say the majority of the historic species could be reacquired enough for the character of the building to remain fairly similar. It's much better luck than I'd have expected for a building closed fifteen years ago. There are also additional nocturnal species not held that could possibly be acquired or moved here. I think we'll do great.
It is of course worth mentioning that the Bronx Zoo is a world famous name, and I'm sure they have a little more pull to bring in unique species if they think they can get a program rolling or form a consortium.
The red-flanked duikers at Brookfield are held indoors in a nocturnal lighting exhibit during the winter if this is of any interest for comparison.
I actually wouldn't rule out the white-bellied tree pangolin. We have quite a few of them at Brookfield and efforts to spread the program haven't been successful so far from what I've heard, but Brookfield is still breeding them behind the scenes and has shown an intent to remain committed to the species, so I'm sure if Bronx has any interest, Brookfield would be happy to work with them.
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I hate to keep bringing this up and being a downer, because I really am excited, and I think that it is wonderful that Bronx is opening a new nocturnal house in this era. I just would like to mention that the dead-ends are the most interesting and rare species that used to be held. It's not really Bronx's fault or anything like that, the species available have just been decreasing and those left have been increasingly homogonous across the zoos of this country.
Even something like Aye-aye, which is a spectacular creature, no doubt, is kept widely enough at places like Cincy, Denver, and Omaha, so that it wouldn't be as much of a stand-out at the Bronx on the national or international level. No doubt it's great for the zoo and region at large, I'm just lamenting how possums, opossums, rare small cats, carnivorans, and other rare animals the zoo once kept are no longer really a possibility for a new exhibit. Had a new nocturnal house opened fifteen years ago, the number of options for new rare and fabulous species would be manyfold more. There have simply been an unfortunately large number of dead-end species.
Who knows, Nashville brought in some very exciting new carnivores, BTS unfortunately, and Bronx still has in its collection some of the most interesting small mammals and nocturnal creatures scattered across the vast campus, so perhaps we will be pleasantly surprised, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
TL;DR I am somewhat saddened by the lack of species diversity that used to be possible, and I'd love to be proven wrong, but still think the new exhibit is a wonderful development and applaud the effort.
I get the sentiment here and largely agree that options for an exhibit like this have substantially deceased. It's a shame of course, because certain nocturnal mammals are indeed some of the weirdest and most fascinating animals out there. However, there is still a lot of possibilities for species that aren't ubiquitous to make a name for themselves here. Aye-ayes are an outstanding addition for a zoo that already flaunts an extensive Madagascar collection. They may not be an ultra rare life-tick, but it's great to see such an odd species being promoted at the headlining attraction of this exhibit.
And keep in mind, if there's any U.S. zoo willing to bring in rarities and obscure species, it's Bronx. Director Jim Breheny has publicly criticized AZA population managers for excessive phase-outs and has laminated the loss of species diversity in American zoos. Bronx has been excellent on maintaining a diverse collection and has committed to programs that many other zoos have abandoned. The very fact that an exhibit like World of Darkness is being resurrected in the first place is a departure from general trends of the last decade.
All of this is to say; who knows what possible. I'm not saying to expect leopard cats or tarsiers, but I'm optimistic there may be a few surprises in store.
I really would feel significantly more sympathy for this perspective if we were discussing an actual finalized species list, but responding this way to the announcement that the exhibit is opening before we have any concrete information or details feels like an extraordinary act of pessimism to me.
Phrynoidis
Member
Not AT Miami now afaikk. I think gone.
The San Francisco Zoo had aye-ayes in the nocturnal room of their primate complex for several years, and they were spectacular. They are such interesting and different looking animals that it was like you were watching beings from another planet. I think that they would make a great star attraction for World of Darkness. Zoo nerds may be jaded by them, but the average zoo goer certainly will not be (nor I think will most zoo nerds, even if they have seen aye-ayes at other zoos).
As others have said, we really don't know what species will be in the renewed World of Darkness beyond what they have hinted at in that announcement art. Maybe the zoo will have some surprises that will make even the most jaded zoo nerd happy; we can hope.
KiwiBirb
Well-Known Member
They aren’t even that common, only being in 7 other American institutions, it only appears that way because most of them are some of the best and most popular institutions in the country (San Diego, Omaha, Cincinnati.)
I would definitely say a majority visitors to the zoo have never seen an Aye-Aye, especially locals. Even for me, someone who is decently traveled across the zoo world, I didn’t get to see an Aye-Aye until I traveled overseas to Dublin earlier this year.
Bay duiker are, indeed, gone from Miami. They sent their last individuals to Micanopy last year.
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