Nocturnal Houses Species Lists

Hipporex said:
Does anyone know if Tasmanian devils have ever been kept in nocturnal houses? (considering they are naturally nocturnal). If not, does anyone think, as long as they're given a properly-sized exhibit, that this would be a good/interesting idea? I know that the last time I saw Sarcophilus harrisii (which was at the San Diego Zoo) both individuals were sleeping.
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They are strictly nocturnal in the wild, but not in captivity. Keeping them outside is better for the animals and the visitors.
 
The individuals on-display at Duisburg are very active and kept in an outdoor paddock.
 
In Duisburg and Pairi Daiza I also saw them very active in full daylight. However in San Diego they was asleep during day. I suppose that it depends of every individual, the climate (too hot = time to sleep), and the mood they feel in each instant (f. e. hungry or not, playful or not, etc)
 
Hipporex said:
Does anyone know if Tasmanian devils have ever been kept in nocturnal houses?
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I used to deny that I had ever seen Tasmanian devils in the Clore, until to my embarrassment I found a dreadful photo which was just recognisable as two devils fast asleep in the Moonlight World: I had entirely forgotten about them :oops:
DesertRhino150 said:
The article on the Charles Clore Pavilion contains no full species list
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I can certainly add a few choice species to those that DesertRhino has mentioned, most of which were kept after the IZYB article was written. North Island brown kiwi (in the same exhibit that was later occupied by the devils, I think), striped possum, kowari, Leadbetter's possum, fat-tailed dwarf lemur, Australian water rat, hog badger and Panay cloudrunner spring to mind. I should add that many of the species mentioned in the article were kept in the ground floor enclosures which have always been lit normally. Only nocturnal species were and are kept in the basement, formerly known as the Moonlight World, which now seems to be called Night Life. These include the species I have mentioned above, the fennec foxes, echidnas, lorises, galagos, mouse lemurs, bats and many of the mice and rats etc.
I should perhaps add that the Clore originally held many more species than it does today. The two story open space of the Rainforest area was created by removing several rows of enclosures and a courtyard on the ground floor and perhaps a third of the exhibits in the basement. In addition many of the ground floor exhibits were doubled in size by removing the walls between each pair of enclosures. More recently a small section of the ground floor has been blacked out for the tenrecs and the aye-ayes (which were originally kept in the interior of the old round gorilla house next door).
 
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Chlidonias said:
They are strictly nocturnal in the wild, but not in captivity. Keeping them outside is better for the animals and the visitors.
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Apparently(this from someone who has longterm experience of them in Tasmania) they will also venture out in the daytime on occassion, if particularly hungry etc, the same applies to Quolls too.
 
lintworm said:
I came across an article about the closing of the nocturnal house in Burgers' Zoo, which includes a brief overview of species kept in the 30 years the house was used
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I've been looking in Michael Amend's book about nocturnal houses and he mentions more or less the same species in his brief account about Burgers Zoo and it includes a photo of the pangolin as well. The book also mentions big hairy armadillo, Demidorff's and dwarf galago, chinchilla, dwarf epauletted fruitbat, striped skunk and kinkajou.
 
On the page next to section of Burgers Zoo in Amend's book is a overview of Skansen-Akvariet's (Stockholm) former nocturnal collection. As I visited Skansen-Akvariet recently, it was interesting to know it had quite a variety of nocturnal species in the past. Nowadays there's just one darkened enclosure, for feathertail gliders. This enclosure appears to be in the former hall for nocturnal animals (the desert enclosure with dwarf mongooses is now the main enclosure in this section of the Akvariet), serving from 1981 to 2004. Highlight were for sure the Philippine tarsiers.

According to the book the "Moonlight Hall" consisted of the following enclosures at the opening:
1. Sugar glider
2. Senegal galago, greater slow loris and elephant shrew
3. Lesser slow loris and lesser hedgehog tenrec
4. Kinkajou and short-beaked echidna
5. Golden-bellied water rat
6. Night monkey and woylie
7. Philippine tarsier
8. Mouse lemur
9. Degu and big hairy armadillo

Later on kowari, ground cuscus, striped possum, long-nosed potoroo, greater tenrec, tree shrew, fat-tailed lemur, slender loris, prehensile-tailed porcupine, chinchilla and desert dormouse were kept.
 
AWP said:
1. Sugar glider
2. Senegal galago, greater slow loris and elephant shrew
3. Lesser slow loris and lesser hedgehog tenrec
4. Kinkajou and short-beaked echidna
5. Golden-bellied water rat
6. Night monkey and woylie
7. Philippine tarsier
8. Mouse lemur
9. Degu and big hairy armadillo
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Now there's some interesting mixes, particularly number 9. Armadillo and degu, both burrowing species, seems to be the oddest combination! ;)
 
Jurek7 said:
Animal presentation and public interactions are not used in nocturnal houses at all.
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Thanks for your excellent comment. Just to add to the quote above, I have seen presenters in Bristol Zoo showing visitors the animals and giving short talks using a red light before, people seemed pretty engaged by it. Shaldon Wildlife Trust also do something similar with their loris, and I've occasionally seen presenters in the bat enclosure in Chester.
 
Here's an updated list for Henry Doorly, from Oct 20th 2018.

Kingdoms of the Night
Naked Mole Rat
Fossa
Greater Bushbaby, Springhaas
Amazon Milky Tree Frog, Emerald Tree Boa, Green Tree Python, Magnificent Tree Frog
Bushy-tailed Jird
Amazon Tree Boa, Jamaican Boa
Mexican Leaf Frog
Schneider's Dwarf Caiman
Haitian Boa
Aardvark, Brushtail Porcupine, Greater Bushbaby, Hoffman's Two-toed Sloth, Potto, Springhaas
Short-tailed Fruit Bat
Mexican Blind Cavefish
Amethystine Python
Banded Knob-tailed Gecko
Douroucouli, Hoffman's Two-toed Sloth, Nine-banded Armadillo, Prehensile-tailed Porcupine, Screaming Hairy Armadillo, St. Vincent Agouti, Three-banded Armadillo
Short-beaked Echidna, Tamar Wallaby
Fly River Turtle, Krefft's River Turtle, Northern Australian Snake-necked Turtle, Pink-bellied Side-necked Turtle
Johnson's Crocodile
Vampire Bat
Ruwenzori Long-haired Fruit Bat
Spear-nosed Bat
Greater Bulldog Bat
Egyptian Fruit Bat
Little Golden-mantled Fruit Bat
Giant Indian Fruit Bat
Cope's Grey Tree Frog, Green Tree Frog
Black Pine Snake
Corn Snake
American Toad
American Alligator
Alligator Snapping Turtle, American Beaver (also gar, cooters, etc, species not named)
Nutria
Spectacled Caiman
American Bullfrog, Western Painted Turtle, Yellow-blotched Map Turtle
Eastern Indigo Snake
Alligator Snapping Turtle, American Crocodile, Common Snapping Turtle


I really liked this exhibit. The lighting was well done and exhibits spacious, so it was easy to find almost every species quickly. I saw practically nothing at the Bronx.
 
Canada does not have any particularly spectacular nocturnal exhibits, but there are a few kicking around (even if some are literally just one singular enclosure, lol)

Vancouver Aquarium:
Jamaican Fruit Bat

Edmonton Valley Zoo:
Kinkajou
Linnaeus's Two Toed Sloth
Prehensile Tailed Porcupine
Jamaican Fruit Bat
In the past this exhibit also housed three banded armadillo that displayed very nicely, however they were removed due to husbandry issues.

Bird Kingdom:
Sugar Glider
Boobook Owl
African Giant Bullfrog
Axolotl
Striped skunk
Lemur Tree Frog
Egyptian Fruit Bat

Toronto Zoo has two different nocturnal areas, one in their African pavilion housing naked mole rats, cave crickets, I believe hissing cockroaches, and straw coloured Fruit Bat, the other in their Australasia pavilion housing sugar and feather tailed gliders, and perhaps a few other species I can't quite recall at the moment.
 
As of my visit in August 2018, Columbus' Roadhouse had the following (not counting the jungle aviary that comes after):

*Green tree python
*Giant prickly walking stick
*Jungle nymph
*Tawny frogmouth
*Kiwi
*Wombat
*Binturong
*Matschie's tree kangaroo
*Indian crested porcupine
*Slow loris
*Brush-tailed bettong
*Feathertail glider
*Three gecko species - don't remember the exact species
 
TinoPup said:
I've been debating messaging you about it :) I've spent all summer/fall working on it, you and this board have been a huge help!
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Glad to be of service, told you bats are awesome! ;)

I'm intrigued to know how you managed to overcome your fear, feel free to PM about it. :)
 
I visited the Memphis Zoo in Memphis, Tennessee, USA for the first time on September 26 and noted a complete species list of the zoo's Animals of the Night nocturnal house which features an impressive collection in 24 exhibits. Exhibits are listed in the approximate order in which they are encountered along the visitor path; except where noted, all exhibits are small room-sized habitats behind glass:

White-bellied Tree Pangolin

White-bellied Tree Pangolin

Two-toed Sloth

Greater Bushbaby

Aardvark and Greater Bushbaby

Egyptian Rousette Bat, Greater Fishing Bat, and Seba's Short-tailed Bat in long cave corridor with viewing on both sides

Bear Cuscus, Golden Rumped Agouti, and Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat

Striped Bark Scorpion in medium-sized wall terrarium

Binturong

Splendid Tree Frog in medium-sized triangular-shaped column terrarium

Axolotl in medium-sized wall aquarium

Naked Mole Rat in tunnel colony with approximately 10 chambers

Vampire Bat

Empty medium-sized triangular-shaped column terrarium

Crested Porcupine (African)

Tamandua

Prehensile Tailed Porcupine

Crested Porcupine (African)

Blind Cave Fish in medium-sized wall aquarium

Golden Rumped Agouti, Kinkajou, Six-banded Armadillo, and Two-toed Sloth

Slender Loris in medium-sized triangular-shaped column terrarium

Kinkajou

Large-spotted Genet

Mongoose Lemur, Owl Monkey, and Three-banded Armadillo

I had good luck viewing most of the animals while they were active in the mid-afternoon; the exhibit quality is mostly average, with the unfortunate use of too many star lights in the ceiling and the use of mirrors on some of the exhibit walls creating a bit of visual chaos. Fortunately I was the only one in the exhibit all on a blissfully uncrowded day so it was a treat.
 
Milwaukee County Zoo list updated
• African Straw-colored Fruit Bat
• Common Vampire Bat
• Fennec Fox
• Mohol Bushbaby
• Potto
• Ruwenzori Long-haired Fruit Bat
• Southern Three-banded Armadillo
• Springhaas
• Sugar Glider
 
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Here is another nocturnal house species list, this time from Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary:

  1. Eastern Cottontail, Southern Flying Squirrel
  2. Eastern Screech-Owl
  3. Eastern Chipmunk
  4. White-Footed Mouse
  5. Virginia Opossum
  6. Virginia Opossum
  7. American Mink
  8. American Mink
  9. Eastern Fox Snake, Black Rat Snake
 
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