According to information I found on a Facebook page for Dutch zoo enthusiasts, originally "De Nacht" or "The Night" was originally divided into continental sections (Africa and Madagascar, Australia and South America), but because the animals eventually managed to move between the section (which are divided by automatic sliding doors) and intermingle, that idea was abandoned and "De Nacht" now consists of three connection sections of walk-through exhibit with various species as well as a few separate exhibits.
According to the Dutch Facebook page, the signs in the exhibit, my observations during my visit and some earlier research on Zootierliste, the following species are kept free-ranging in "De Nacht" or "The Night":
- Western Woylie or Western brush-tailed bettong (Bettongia penicillata ogilbyi)
- Grey-handed night monkey or Grey-handed douroucouli (Aotus lemurinus griseimembra)
- Linnaeus's two-toed sloth (Choloepus didactylus)
- Long-nosed potoroo (Potorous tridactylus)
- African brush-tailed porcupine (Atherurus africanus)
- Azara's agouti (Dasyprocta azarae)
I also spotted (and will show elsewhere in this gallery) at least one votsotsa or Malagasy giant jumping rat (Hypogeomys antimena) roaming free. The votsotsas were however supposed to be in a separate exhibit with bushbabies (which I will also show elsewhere in this gallery - and I did see at least one more in there) so not such what's going on there.
@KevinB That is true. The first part was Africa, the second part Australia (with a small Malagasy exhibit near the entrance and the third part was S-America. Especially the Brush-tailed possums were extremely mobile, as were the Bettong. In the beginning they also gave guided tours only, but that idea was abandoned rather quickly fortunately....
@lintworm Thank you for the information and conformation. During my previous visit to Dierenpark Amersfoort in 2007 it was already not guided tour only anymore, but that's about all I can remember (and I don't have any pictures from that visit of De Nacht because I did not have the equipment or knowledge for photography in nocturnal exhibits at the time).
There's still plenty of interesting and rare (in zoological collections) species in De Nacht, but too bad they no longer have the brush-tailed possums.
