Where are the great nocturnal exhibits in the world and what are their highlights?

DavidBrown

DavidBrown

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
I was just reading an article about the Bronx Zoo shutting down their nocturnal house, the World of Darkness. The nocturnal house at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle has also been recently closed. The nocturnal Australia exhibit at the Los Angeles Zoo has now been closed for several years.

Are nocturnal houses closing down in other zoos in other parts of the world?

Clearly the concept is thriving in Singapore because there is a whole zoo dedicated to the concept.

These have me wondering where the great nocturnal houses of the world are. I remember visiting one in the London Zoo that had long-beaked echidnas among other species, but I think that it has been closed? Do they still have a nocturnal house of some kind there? Where are the best nocturnal houses of Europe? What are their specific highlights?

The only nocturnal house of any significant scale that seems to be left in the U.S. is at the Omaha Zoo: http://www.omahazoo.com/Post/sections/44/Files/Kingdoms of the Night.pdf
 
The best one I know of in the UK is that at Bristol Zoo, which holds amongst a number of other species the following:

Sand Cats
Aye-Aye
Linne's Two-Toed Sloth
Pygmy Slow Loris
Grey Mouse Lemur
Naked Mole Rats (I think they still have these?)
Six-banded Armadillo
 
Chlidonias said:
apparently I have gained the reputation as the "there's already a thread about that on Zoochat" guy, so have a look at these related threads:
http://www.zoochat.com/2/worlds-best-nocturnal-house-59872/
http://www.zoochat.com/2/nocturnal-houses-112224/
http://www.zoochat.com/24/nocturnal-houses-91779/

:)
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Thanks Chlidonias. I guess the new spin that I'm hoping to get on this thread is if there is a trend towards shutting down nocturnal houses. In the time since the first thread you posted here at least 3 of the major U.S. nocturnal houses have closed or been converted to other things: Cincinnatti, Bronx, and Woodland Park.

I'm also curious if any zoo in the world is planning any nocturnal exhibits s the trend in the U.S. clearly seems to be in the opposite direction of eliminating them, presumably for budgetary reasons.

Another question comes to mind is if any aquariums have the equivalent of nocturnal halls? The California Academy of Sciences has a tank cloaked in darkness to house and showcase flashlight fish. Are there any other aquariums that showcase bioluminescent fishies or other species?
 
I was careful to put "related threads" because they didn't really specifically address the questions in your thread here. They do tie in with it nicely though for others that are interested.

In terms of Aquariums, at the New Caledonian aquarium (see the New Caledonia part of the forum) there is a completely-darkened tank for flashlight fish and it is in a darkened room used to showcase the glowing of corals under ultraviolet light. It is very cool. Two (previously three) of the aquariums in NZ also have nocturnal kiwi houses within them.
 
DavidBrown said:
I remember visiting one in the London Zoo that had long-beaked echidnas among other species, but I think that it has been closed? Do they still have a nocturnal house of some kind there? [/url]
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There is still a nocturnal house downstairs in the Clore Pavilion at London Zoo but it is smaller than it was when the long-beaked echidnas were there.

DavidBrown said:
The California Academy of Sciences has a tank cloaked in darkness to house and showcase flashlight fish. Are there any other aquariums that showcase bioluminescent fishes or other species?
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I’ve seen flashlight fish (Photoblepharon palpebratus) a number of times in Stuttgart Zoo.
 
I remember going to the Minnesota Zoo 20 years ago and seeing a nocturnal exhibit in the Minnesota Trail and the Tropics Trail. Are they still there? I also remember seeing one in the Brookfield Zoo in the Australia area that had fruit bats flying around. That was in 1993 so I'm not sure if that is there or now. Why is it a trend to close down nocturnal houses.
 
Not sure if they are closing or not, but in my opinion it would be just as well. I have been to dozens of zoos in every part of the U.S. (plus a few in England and France) and every nocturnal house I have seen is pretty bad. Maybe the animals are more active, but it is so dark the people really cannot see anything, so what is the point? Also, they are generally exhibits that most of us would deem too small for the inhabitants, but it is so dark that no one complains because you cannot really see where the walls are.

I prefer the outdoor night zoo concept in tropical locales (Singapore Night Safari) or the summer night hours at zoos in the southwest United States (a concept that zoos in other parts of the country need to adopt).

I think a really creative idea for a night zoo experience would be to have a very large very dark savanna and have the zoo loan or rent out night vision goggles. Or even better, maybe there is a way to set up permanent viewing telescopes that are night-vision enabled.
 
The only one I can really remember well was the one in Omaha and that one is pretty nice. To me it doesn't make sense to keep things like owls or raccoons in outdoor enclosures where they will sleep all day. I do like the idea of keeping a zoo open at night.
 
I personally LOVE nocturnal exhibits and I've been saddened to see zoos such as Los Angeles, Bronx, Woodland Park, Cincinnati and Calgary all close their nocturnal houses in the past few years. I mentioned on another thread that one of the best I've ever seen is in the dead center of Australia, as the Alice Springs Desert Park has the largest nocturnal house in the southern hemisphere and it is simply fantastic.

In the United States Omaha's "Kingdoms of the Night" reigns supreme, and there are many excellent exhibits there in what is often advertised as the largest of its kind on the planet. There are also many American zoos that have mini-nocturnal houses, often with 4 or fewer exhibits: Knoxville (in the top-notch children's zoo), Louisville (bats), North Carolina, Point Defiance, Rio Grande, San Francisco (aye-ayes), Mesker Park, Akron, Cameron Park, Oklahoma City, etc.

Memphis has a full-scale nocturnal house with over 25 species and a memorably large bat habitat with literally hundreds of bats. Columbus has a very well done Aussie roadhouse that is darkened; Fort Worth has its large exhibit complex "Texas Wild!" that contains an excellent darkened mine shaft; and Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum has two darkened areas (Earth Sciences Building and Life Underground).
 
snowleopard said:
I personally LOVE nocturnal exhibits and I've been saddened to see zoos such as Los Angeles, Bronx, Woodland Park, Cincinnati and Calgary all close their nocturnal houses in the past few years. I mentioned on another thread that one of the best I've ever seen is in the dead center of Australia, as the Alice Springs Desert Park has the largest nocturnal house in the southern hemisphere and it is simply fantastic.

In the United States Omaha's "Kingdoms of the Night" reigns supreme, and there are many excellent exhibits there in what is often advertised as the largest of its kind on the planet. There are also many American zoos that have mini-nocturnal houses, often with 4 or fewer exhibits: Knoxville (in the top-notch children's zoo), Louisville (bats), North Carolina, Point Defiance, Rio Grande, San Francisco (aye-ayes), Mesker Park, Akron, Cameron Park, Oklahoma City, etc.

Memphis has a full-scale nocturnal house with over 25 species and a memorably large bat habitat with literally hundreds of bats. Columbus has a very well done Aussie roadhouse that is darkened; Fort Worth has its large exhibit complex "Texas Wild!" that contains an excellent darkened mine shaft; and Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum has two darkened areas (Earth Sciences Building and Life Underground).
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The Memphis Zoo's nocturnal house sounds interesting. Are the animals arranged geographically or is it just a general nocturnal area? Kingdoms of the Night's swamp is my favorite one, I just wish the raccoons were back in there instead of their outdoor enclosure they have now.
 
The Memphis Zoo is one of my favorites but the nocturnal house is awful. There is no geographic arrangement (that I recall) or any arrangement whatsoever. The enclosures are pitifully small and they try to trick visitors into making them think they are bigger by using mirrors on the back walls, which in the dark light is not immediately noticeable to casual visitors. If anyone could see this building with the lights turned on I think they would demand it be demolished.

As for the Earth Sciences Cave at Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, it is just a geology and mineral display and has no animals, so I am not sure you can count that. The other nocturnal hall there, which was built in the 1970's, has exhibits that are so painfully small they ought to be illegal.
 
@Arizona Docent: I agree with all of your points in regards to the nocturnal exhibits at ASDM and Memphis Zoo. I really enjoy darkened exhibit areas but as you have pointed out many of them are disappointing in terms of size. I think that part of the problem is that even with relatively small exhibits many animals in darkened environments are still difficult to locate. The average visitor speed-walks through nocturnal houses without the patience that is needed and therefore a lot of animals are never even seen.
 
snowleopard said:
Memphis has a full-scale nocturnal house with over 25 species and a memorably large bat habitat with literally hundreds of bats. Columbus has a very well done Aussie roadhouse that is darkened; Fort Worth has its large exhibit complex "Texas Wild!" that contains an excellent darkened mine shaft; and Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum has two darkened areas (Earth Sciences Building and Life Underground).
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@snow: where are your favorite nocturnal bat exhibits? Omaha certainly has memorably showy ones. The bats and the Australian freshwater crocodiles are the elements of that nocturnal house that I remember the most.
 
Outside of America, I thought Berlin's nocturnal house was quite interesting, although not particularly large nor extensive. Maybe I liked it because it had 2 species that I absolutely wish Singapore Night Safari would get - aardvark and aye-aye!
 
In the midwestern US, Brookfield zoo, Lincoln park zoo and Milwaukee zoo all have nocturnal exhibits,of which Brookfield has the best ( in the australia house ). In Latin America, Zoomat in Chiapas, Mexico has a very nice nocturnal house, as well as the Parque de Leyendas in Lima, Peru. Faunia in Madrid, Spain also has a very good nocturnal house. Nocturnal houses are getting rarer.
 
I've seen two nocturnal houses here in Australia; Adelaide Zoo and Healesville Sanctuary (I think I went to one at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast but I forget it). Healesville Sanctuary's house is all native species, including northern quoll, greater bilby, eastern barred bandicoot, and quite a few species of possum and glider. Adelaide Zoo's house is similiar but mixes the native theme up a bit with a pair of two-toed sloths. Ghost bats and greater stick-nest rats are two more of the highlights.
 
Strange that Frankfurts Grzimek house hasn't been mentioned yet... With about 25 nocturnal exhibits. Highlights are definitely Aye-aye, kiwi, aardvark, fattailed dwarf lemur, slender lori's, cloud rat, prehensile tailed porcupine, moholi galago, springhaas, ground cuscus and kowari. It is by far the biggest nocturnal house in Europe.

Smaller but also nice nocturnal houses can be found in Amersfoort (brush-tailed porcupine, vototsa, potoroo, aguti and more in a walkthrough setting), Krakow (Garnett galago, slow lori's, sand cat, ground cuscus and more), Berlin (Aye-Aye, aardvark, vampire bat, need I say more :p), Erfurt and Antwerp.
 
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