Nocturnal Exhibits in the United Kingdom

Fallax said:
Yes, the Clore Pavilion quite infamously used to be absolutely full of tiny exhibits until I believe the mid-90s.
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I remember going into that building in 1996 as a 10 year old and being blown away by the number of exhibits and species. Back then I was just excited about seeing as many animals as possible and less concerned about the welfare of the animals.

Was surprised to see what had been done to the building in 2014 when I returned but felt the changes were excellent. First time I'd seen a Tamandua and it was right there on the walkway alongside us.

Memories of the old small mammal and nocturnal house back in 1996 are fairly hazy but I remember upstairs a mouse deer walking in circles in a small tank, various squirrels, small monkeys, tree porcupines and downstairs fennec fox, sand cat, sloth, possums, opossums, bats, bushbabies, Loris. Would love to know what else I might have seen at that time.
 
ZooNut23 said:
I remember going into that building in 1996 as a 10 year old and being blown away by the number of exhibits and species. Back then I was just excited about seeing as many animals as possible and less concerned about the welfare of the animals.

Was surprised to see what had been done to the building in 2014 when I returned but felt the changes were excellent. First time I'd seen a Tamandua and it was right there on the walkway alongside us.

Memories of the old small mammal and nocturnal house back in 1996 are fairly hazy but I remember upstairs a mouse deer walking in circles in a small tank, various squirrels, small monkeys, tree porcupines and downstairs fennec fox, sand cat, sloth, possums, opossums, bats, bushbabies, Loris. Would love to know what else I might have seen at that time.
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I went sometime around 1999/2000 and remember clearly a family of Fennec Foxes in the nocturnal area, bushbabies in the triangular enclosure, and treeshrews upstairs, possibly a small cat/carnivore of some kind too. Am sure I remember some open-fronted enclosures upstairs in an open-topped walkway, with just the stand-off barrier and a gap between the enclosure and the public, but I could be mistaken. Am also sure I remember being able to walk around the outside walkway of what is now the Spider Monkey enclosure

I will admit that going down the same stairs to the nocturnal area as I did all those years ago still feels magical to me. Night Life is such a special place for me.
 
Crowthorne said:
I went sometime around 1999/2000 and remember clearly a family of Fennec Foxes in the nocturnal area, bushbabies in the triangular enclosure, and treeshrews upstairs, possibly a small cat/carnivore of some kind too. Am sure I remember some open-fronted enclosures upstairs in an open-topped walkway, with just the stand-off barrier and a gap between the enclosure and the public, but I could be mistaken. Am also sure I remember being able to walk around the outside walkway of what is now the Spider Monkey enclosure.
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There were open-fronted enclosures for porcupines; a moat separated them from the public and often had coins in it. The outside walkway went past the wombat enclosure
 
ZooNut23 said:
Memories of the old small mammal and nocturnal house back in 1996 are fairly hazy but I remember upstairs a mouse deer walking in circles....
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I think you're mistaken about the chevrotain....
The ZSL Annual Report for 1996 doesn't list chevrotains as being in the collection that year (and I don't ever remember seeing chevrotains in the Clore Pavilion).
 
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Dassie rat said:
There were open-fronted enclosures for porcupines; a moat separated them from the public and often had coins in it. The outside walkway went past the wombat enclosure
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I remember brush-tailed porcupines in these as well as something else. Does anyone have a species list for the late 1990s?
 
Tim May said:
I think you're mistaken about the chevrotain....
The ZSL Annual Report for 1996 doesn't list chevrotains as being in the collection that year (and I don't ever remember seeing chevrotains in the Clore Pavilion).
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Interesting as that's what I remember most clearly. Wonder what it was I'm thinking of
 
Lotherton has:
Three Banded Armadillo
Fruit bats(I forgot the species)
Kinkajou
North Luzon Cloud Rat

Ponderosa has:
North Luzon cloud rat
Malagasy giant jumping rat
Red knee tarantula
Cairo spiny mouse
Chinchilla
That's all I remember

Northumberland has:
Grey Mouse lemur
Malagasy giant jumping rat
Sugar glider
Long nosed potoroo
Red eyed tree frog
That's all I remember
 
Jacob Blackwood said:
Lotherton has:
Three Banded Armadillo
Fruit bats(I forgot the species)
Kinkajou
North Luzon Cloud Rat

Ponderosa has:
North Luzon cloud rat
Malagasy giant jumping rat
Red knee tarantula
Cairo spiny mouse
Chinchilla
That's all I remember

Northumberland has:
Grey Mouse lemur
Malagasy giant jumping rat
Sugar glider
Long nosed potoroo
Red eyed tree frog
That's all I remember
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For a smaller and less popular zoo, Ponderosa ( in my opinion) is awesome, because it has unusual animals you wouldn't often see
 
I've only been once but they had a very beautiful Callosciurus squirrel which no one is sure what exactly it is, and could well be an undescribed species.
 
Ponderosa used to have 2 pegu red squirrels (Callosciurus finlaysonii ferrugineus) in what is now a lovebird aviary, very beautiful they were indeed:)
 
I remember seeing an article in a izes magazine (can't remember which one but I think in the last two years) written by the late Frank Wheeler and Douglas Richardson about the Clore with species lists.These would certainly be very informative
 
Strathmorezoo said:
I remember seeing an article in a izes magazine (can't remember which one but I think in the last two years) written by the late Frank Wheeler and Douglas Richardson about the Clore with species lists.These would certainly be very informative
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Given the fact that Frank Wheeler passed away over 15 years ago it will have been an rather older article than that - as a matter of fact I'm pretty sure I know the article to which you refer, which was published in IZN rather than Zoo Grapevine.

I'll see if I can root it out for you as I have all the ones from the timespan in question in one form or another :)
 
Strathmorezoo said:
I remember seeing an article in a izes magazine (can't remember which one but I think in the last two years) written by the late Frank Wheeler and Douglas Richardson about the Clore with species lists.These would certainly be very informative
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TeaLovingDave said:
Given the fact that Frank Wheeler passed away over 15 years ago it will have been an rather older article than that - as a matter of fact I'm pretty sure I know the article to which you refer, which was published in IZN rather than Zoo Grapevine.

I'll see if I can root it out for you as I have all the ones from the timespan in question in one form or another :)
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There was an article from the 1975 issue of IZN about the species of the Clore Pavilion as a whole, which I summarised on this thread (post #49):
Nocturnal Houses Species Lists
 
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