The idea of having a nighttime only zoo, especially in a warm tropical environment like Singapore, is just so great, fantastic, stupendous, outstanding... in other words, I really love this idea.
One of my pet peeves is how most zoos are open from 9-5 or 10-5, which is of course when many animals are least active. San Diego stays open until 9pm in summer (and gift shops are open until around 9:30pm), and I wish more U.S. zoos would follow this example. Some are starting to have special evening hours in summer, but it is usually just once a week or once a month (but I suppose that is better than nothing).
That is a good question - I have not noticed. I know they put blue spotlights next to the cages on cat canyon - I am pretty sure those are only up in the summer. (I was there a couple weeks ago and do not recall seeing them). But I think some newer features, like the utilitrees at Elephant Odyssey have lights built in.
My local Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, which does late nights on Saturdays in summer, opened a new exhibit about a year and a half ago called Life On The Rocks. It has underground burrows with glass fronts for viewing and they built in small white lights along the burrows. They are a string of small LED's, not very bright but very pretty, a fantastic design. But here is the problem. They only used it for a couple months, and then some visitors complained about seeing wild rattlesnakes on the trail there, so they closed off this entire section at night. So they have this great built-in lighting system that they can never use.
That is a good question - I have not noticed. I know they put blue spotlights next to the cages on cat canyon - I am pretty sure those are only up in the summer. (I was there a couple weeks ago and do not recall seeing them). But I think some newer features, like the utilitrees at Elephant Odyssey have lights built in.
My local Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, which does late nights on Saturdays in summer, opened a new exhibit about a year and a half ago called Life On The Rocks. It has underground burrows with glass fronts for viewing and they built in small white lights along the burrows. They are a string of small LED's, not very bright but very pretty, a fantastic design. But here is the problem. They only used it for a couple months, and then some visitors complained about seeing wild rattlesnakes on the trail there, so they closed off this entire section at night. So they have this great built-in lighting system that they can never use.
That's a pity. I can picture the burrows looking quite magical with the LED lights. Was it an over-reaction on the rattlesnake complaints?
Singapore Night Safari is located in a secondary rainforest and wild snakes (including venomous spitting cobras) are frequently spotted too. but the snakes tend to move away from people so it really hasn't become an issue.
