The photos from the Nocturama I posted today and earlier are historical photos. Antwerp Zoo's Nocturama opened in 1968 as part of the Jubilee complex, was extensively renovated and modified with the creation of larger, mixed exhibits in 2005 and unfortunately closed forever in the fall of 2019 as the Jubilee complex was emptied for renovations. Those renovations where halted by the Covid pandemic and are planned to restart in 2023. But it has already been announced the Nocturama will not be part of the renovated complex and is gone forever.
I really only grew to appreciate the Nocturama in the last year and a half or so before it closed. I really hope that something like the Nocturama will eventually come back at Zoo Antwerpen.
What a huge pity that the nocturama will just be canned forever... Couldn't they just reform it or something? It's always a plus in any zoo. Do you know anything at all about what they mean to build there instead?
@JigerofLemuria The only explanation I ever read about the Nocturama is that they wanted to decrease the number of species and increase animal welfare. Perhaps there could be some concerns for the larger species in the Nocturama, but certainly not far all.
The jubilee complex of which the Nocturama was part (on the first floor, with the ground floor housing cats and bears and the second floor raptors and owl aviaries as well as the dolphin and later sea lion building) is currently planned to renovated into a complex for cranes and owls, snow leopards, Amur tigers, spider monkeys and spectacled bears, as well as aquatic and jellyfish exhibits in the former dolphin/sea lion building. Personally I think the Nocturama space will be somehow used in the jubilee complex renovation, and that is also what I understand from discussions at the Dutch Laafsekikkers forum, but not much has been made public about the exact plans yet.
Personally I still hope that (part of) the small monkey house will be turned into a new Nocturama once that building gets overhauled, but sadly I also kind of doubt it would sufficiently commercially interesting.
