Bird House with darkness as a barrier

RonBurrgundy

RonBurrgundy

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
I keep thinking about a bird house recently that was completly dark and only the exhibits were lit.
I can't remember which zoo it was... I just know it was in europe and most likely in Germany. The exhibits had no barriers like glass or mesh. They birds would simply not fly into the darkness.
Maybe someone knows which zoo I'm talking about or perhaps knows zoos in general which keep birds like this.
 
Bronx Zoo in the US has a similar setup for many of their exhibits in World of Birds. Sometimes (and I think increasingly so recently) they’ll have nets down, to completely prevent flight out of the exhibits, but at least in the past many of their birds exhibits have operated this way.
 
Antwerp Zoo in Belgium (although as of 2020 this area no longer exhibits live birds):

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Photo @Skukuza

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Photo @KevinB
 
Afaik, the first with this invention was Antwerp and then others copied it. Not sure if Frankfurt and/or Walsorde had it as well. I only know Frankfurts "Juwelensaal" with windows. But memories can go wrong...
 
snowleopard said:
Antwerp Zoo in Belgium (although as of 2020 this area no longer exhibits live birds):

full

Photo @Skukuza

full


Photo @KevinB
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zoomaniac said:
Afaik, the first with this invention was Antwerp and then others copied it..
Click to expand...

They even called this the "Antwerp Cafe System" at some point.

However it certainly didn't work perfectly at Antwerp - one of the reasons for discontinuing the exhibit, besides the small size of the alcoves, was that the birds worked out how to travel between the various exhibits by flying through the relatively well-lit zone right in front of the exhibits, so it all became one mixed exhibit.

The area at Antwerp still exists, but it has now become an educational exhibition about birds with skeletons and some wet specimens.
 
KevinB said:
They even called this the "Antwerp Cage System" at some point.

However it certainly didn't work perfectly at Antwerp - one of the reasons for discontinuing the exhibit, besides the small size of the alcoves, was that the birds worked out how to travel between the various exhibits by flying through the relatively well-lit zone right in front of the exhibits, so it all became one mixed exhibit.
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Indeed. I personally have the suspicion the change from artificial light to natural light during the 2013 renovation might have had something to do with the fact that the barrier didn't work properly anymore in later years, while it seems to have functioned in the +60 years before that (I don't think it would have lasted so long otherwise).

But the exhibits were on the small side and the whole thing felt dated anyway, so I don't really mind that it is defunct now.
 
Agg, what a shame that the Antwerp dark corridor don't work anymore. I have been there and it was full of estrildid finches of several species. It worked very well. Obviously the birds would not stay at a single lit room and wander from one to another constantly, but I can't see how this can be considered as a disadvantage, and much less one enough relevant for stop keeping the birds here. I think maybe the fear of bird flu could have had more weight in the reasons for closure this, than the birds wandering from one to another lit box.
 
Kakapo said:
Agg, what a shame that the Antwerp dark corridor don't work anymore. I have been there and it was full of estrildid finches of several species. It worked very well. Obviously the birds would not stay at a single lit room and wander from one to another constantly, but I can't see how this can be considered as a disadvantage, and much less one enough relevant for stop keeping the birds here. I think maybe the fear of bird flu could have had more weight in the reasons for closure this, than the birds wandering from one to another lit box.
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Bird flu certainly wasn't a reason for the closure, as Antwerp still has other walkthrough bird exhibits, which in Belgium don't have to close during bird flu measures anyway. A sign at the entrance of the corridor states that they now think that it isn't suited for keeping animals anymore... How vague that may be, I believe it is likely a combination of small size of the individual enclosures and arguably that it is rather pointless to maintain a light barrier enclosure just for the sake of it, if said light barrier doesn't work properly anymore.

It helps that the decommissioning of the corridor hasn't lead to the loss of the several estrildid species at the Zoo, as they have been spread out over the remaining enclosures in and around the bird house. They even turned the former macaw enclosure into an all new Australian exhibit with >10 different species of estrildids.
 
I was twice in Antwerp bird house and both times, there was no visible birds in these cages. Perhaps because they were too small for birds, similar in size to a traditional room canary cage. This exhibit type was replaced by walk-through bird rooms, which are more-the-less the same but better.

I first read about Antwerp exhibit in an old book about zoos, which also talked about a snake exhibit, separated only by a belt of sand which was (invisibly) very strongly cooled. It apparently kept the ectothermic reptiles from escaping. I wonder what zoo it was meant, and how long this exhibit existed? It did not catch up, either.
 
Jurek7 said:
I first read about Antwerp exhibit in an old book about zoos, which also talked about a snake exhibit, separated only by a belt of sand which was (invisibly) very strongly cooled. It apparently kept the ectothermic reptiles from escaping. I wonder what zoo it was meant, and how long this exhibit existed? It did not catch up, either.
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That was also an experiment in Antwerp, but it was indeed less successful than the light barrier for birds (I've heard different stories on why it was unsuccesful, so I don't know for sure what the true problem was). It was never implemented further than a single test exhibit that was likely discontinued in the 1970's.
 
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Cincinnati, at least up until their recent renovation a few years back, did this with their bird exhibits. Most notably with the thick-billed parrot exhibit, which I think may have been the last exhibit to remain without barriers.
 
I have seen this same strategy employed with walkthrough exhibits, where one or both ends of the free-flight area do not use doors or curtains, but rather lead from or into a dark hallway.

The North Carolina Zoo employs this in their Desert exhibit; there is no door or curtain leading into the Nocturnal Gallery from the main dome area, which has free-flying birds (it also helps that you pass through a narrow canyon which the birds seem to avoid), and there is just one set of doors leading from the Nocturnal hall to outside (as opposed to the 2 sets of doors you pass through entering the building).

The Florida Aquarium also does this with their Wetlands of Florida exhibit; neither end of the exhibit has doors or curtains, but the hallways leading into and out of the exhibit are dimly-lit. You pass through zero doors/curtains going from the lobby, to the Florida exhibit, and back to the lobby.

There are likely others. I THINK Omaha did this as well, but I don't really remember.
 
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