Notable exhibits that are missed

KevinB

KevinB

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
Recently in the thread about Europe's 100 must see exhibits there was some talk about exhibits, exhibit complexes or animal houses that no longer exist, were notable and/or popular and are missed, and that maybe there should be a thread to discuss and reminisce about those.

I have now decided to start that nostalgic thread. I am not going to put forth any specific guidelines and will give pretty free rein to anyone participating. I do think however that at least a small amount of discussion about the exhibit(s) and if possible some images should be included.

Personally I will start this thread with two submissions: Zoo Antwerpen's Nocturama and Rotterdam Zoo/Diergaarde Blijdorp's meadow/migratory bird aviaries.

I have photos of those exhibits I have taken myself, but very few if any currently posted to the gallery, so for now I will be choosing photos others have posted. I do plan to one day add some of my own photos of these exhibits to the gallery.

Zoo Antwerpen - Nocturama

The Nocturama at Antwerp was part of the Jubilee complex, built in the late 1960's for the zoo's 125-year anniversary. This complex consisted of predator (cat and bear) exhibits on the ground floor, a Nocturama or nocturnal house on the first floor, raptor and owl aviaries on the roof/top floor and a dolphinarium on the first and top floors (later home to California sea lions). The Jubilee complex closed to visitors for renovation and was emptied of animals in late 2019. Unfortunately the planned renovation was halted in its very early stages by the Covid-19 pandemic and to my knowledge still hasn't restarted. It was however already announced in 2019 that the Nocturama would be closed and would not be part of the renovation. Most, if not all of the former inhabitants have since left the zoo.

I only grew to appreciate Antwerp's Nocturama, and in fact the very concept of nocturnal houses, in the last years of its existence. Antwerp's Nocturama was of decent size with fairly decent exhibits with some nice landscaping and held quite a nice collection with species from different continents and habitats, including mouse deer, slender loris, aardvark, springhare, tamandua, two-toed sloth, douroucouli, armadillo and Egyptian fruit bat. The original 1969 Nocturama had a lot of small exhibits with burrows visitors could view into. In the mid 2000's it was revamped with much larger mixed exhibits themed to continents and habitats (i.e. African savanna, South American forest). Some of the exhibits were renovated in later years, and an exhibit for pouched rats with a display on rats being trained to search for landmines was later added next to the entrance of the Nocturama.

Antwerp's Nocturama had its main entrance next to the sea lion underwater viewing area and an exit between the tiger (later coati and young spectacled bear) terrace and the Amur leopard cage. Next to the old lion terrace (later raccoon/skunk exhibit) was a secondary staircase entrance.

Personally I think the loss of the Nocturama as a concept and an animal house and of several of the species that were housed in it are a real loss to Zoo Antwerpen. Unfortunately given the tendency to require outdoor exhibits for larger mammal species and that the nocturnal house concept seems to be very much going out of fashion in zoos in general I don't see much of a chance for nocturnal exhibits to return to Antwerp. But personally I would love to see the Nocturama either to be renovated after all, or for the small monkey house to (partially) become a nocturnal house with some of the previously kept species, or other species.

Aardvark and springhare exhibit
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By @lintworm

South American exhibit
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By @lintworm

Visitor area
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By @Hippo

Australian golden-bellied water-rat exibit
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By @Toddy

Egyptian fruit bat cave (The bats could also acccess the South American exhibit)
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By @Toddy

For more images see the Search results for Nocturama in the Zoo Antwerpen category.

Diergaarde Blijdorp/Rotterdam Zoo - Meadow bird/Migratory bird aviaries

These set of two aviaries, with the indoor bird housing set in an adjacent greenhouse, existed relatively briefly. The aviaries opened in 2007 and closed in 2014. The area was then repurposed into an African aviary with okapis and African birds. There were two aviaries, one with native Dutch meadow type birds such as avocets, lapwings and ducks and one with a more Mediterranean theme housing Southern European and migratory birds such as bee-eaters.

Personally I really liked these aviaries and the native and European collections are something that I generally find underrepresented in zoos. Something like or at the scale of the aviaries at Rotterdam I have not yet seen at other zoos. I really liked the aviaries and while I love Rotterdam's current okapi indoor exhibits in the greenhouse, the current African outdoor aviary just doesn't do it for me, and the okapi paddocks are adequate but not great.

Dutch meadow birds
full

By @Toddy

full

By @Maguari

full

By @korhoen

full

By @orycteropus

Mediterranean/Migratory bird side
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By @orycteropus (Comments include species list)

Unfortunately I couldn't find images showing more of the Mediterranean part in the galley.

I am looking forward to what exhibits you guys will bring to the table in terms of zoo and exhibit nostalgia!
 
Never visited the zoo when it was open but Glasgow's Asian black bear exhibit was wildely recognised for it's wonderful design. Allowed the bears to hibernate in spacious dens with elevated baskets for nesting, while outside they were able to climb both tall platforms and live trees.
 
Not an exhibit but the railway at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park: A narrated ride that went through all of the savanna exhibits at the park. Some of the species from this era can’t be found at the park or even in the United States anymore.
 
I was lucky enough to see World of Darkness and the controversial Monkey House before they were closed down. While I wouldn’t loose sleep if the monkey house did get converted into something else, I do feel like WoD was a big loss. As someone whose only exposure to a zoo was a bad one WoD felt like something I’d expect from science fiction. It will be missed.
 
PossumRoach said:
I was lucky enough to see World of Darkness and the controversial Monkey House before they were closed down. While I wouldn’t loose sleep if the monkey house did get converted into something else, I do feel like WoD was a big loss. As someone whose only exposure to a zoo was a bad one WoD felt like something I’d expect from science fiction. It will be missed.
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Bronx Zoo, I assume.
 
I'd say a big loss was the African Wetlands Aviary at Tampa. Very spacious area with several bird species, shoebills being the biggest highlight. It's where the first breeding of shoebills in America took place and was an excellent habitat overall. Apparently it wasn't designed very well and become rather unstable in it's last few years which led to its demolition. Thankfully the shoebills did get a new exhibit nearby although it lacks the wow-factor of this display.

full

Photo by @snowleopard
 
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KevinB said:
Diergaarde Blijdorp/Rotterdam Zoo - Meadow bird/Migratory bird aviaries
Click to expand...

It is such a loss that this exhibit does not exist anymore. In my experience most Dutch people know more about endangered wildlife in Africa and Asia than they do about our native species. Avocets raise too few chicks to replace the population almost every year now. The only reason shovellers hardly decrease anymore on conventional farmland is because there are almost none left! We have lost over 99% of our ruffs in the last 30 years. Yet at this moment, I think Amsterdam is the only major Dutch zoo that still displays our meadowbirds. This is a conservation issue so close to home, and zoos like Rotterdam, Amersfoort, even Rhenen, are right in the middle of it (which means: there are literally dwindling meadowbird populations within cycling distance of these zoos!), yet almost all our zoos seem blind to it.

This is one of the biggest issues I have with most Dutch zoos. Wildlife conservation is almost always portrayed as a far from home issue, yet many species are disappearing from our zoos own "backyards". If zoos are serious about their commitment to wildlife conservation, I think at least a bit more attention on our native species is warranted. Good examples are not far away!
 
Mr. Zootycoon said:
It is such a loss that this exhibit does not exist anymore. In my experience most Dutch people know more about endangered wildlife in Africa and Asia than they do about our native species. Avocets raise too few chicks to replace the population almost every year now. The only reason shovellers hardly decrease anymore on conventional farmland is because there are almost none left! We have lost over 99% of our ruffs in the last 30 years. Yet at this moment, I think Amsterdam is the only major Dutch zoo that still displays our meadowbirds. This is a conservation issue so close to home, and zoos like Rotterdam, Amersfoort, even Rhenen, are right in the middle of it (which means: there are literally dwindling meadowbird populations within cycling distance of these zoos!), yet almost all our zoos seem blind to it.

This is one of the biggest issues I have with most Dutch zoos. Wildlife conservation is almost always portrayed as a far from home issue, yet many species are disappearing from our zoos own "backyards". If zoos are serious about their commitment to wildlife conservation, I think at least a bit more attention on our native species is warranted. Good examples are not far away!
Click to expand...

The state of meadow birds in the Netherlands and Belgium is pretty dramatic, they are suffering even in their traditional stronghold areas.

It is good for zoos to pay attention to conservation in, say, the Amazon or the Congo, but issues closer to home should also definitely be dealt with - and differences could probably also be made there.

Which good examples of location conservation are you referring to?
 
Just realised that I once visited the “Tropijoy” greenhouse at the old NOP (Dutch parrot refuge) at Veldhoven (NL). It was a tropical greenhouse over 2 levels and on the second floor there were separate smaller aviaries lining the walls and the species line up in both the walk-through greenhouse and the aviaries was just rediculous.

In the free-flight part there were at least the one male long-wattled umbrellabird (I believe the same bird now at Walsrode), capuchinbirds, bare-necked fruitcrows and a lot of carmine bee-eaters. In the aviaries were both species of cock-of-the-rocks, plate-billed mountain tucanet, one of the pygmy owls, etc.

Rarely have I seen a species line-up ever since. The hall itself was also decent enough (although apparantly not extremely well isolated).

Anyone here old enough to remember what else was in there?
 
dillotest0 said:
I always thought this bird came from the Barcelona Zoo ?
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Hmm, at one point in time both NOP and Barcelona both held 1.0 (I actually saw both birds in a relatively short time). Both disappeared around the same time the 1.0 appeared at Walsrode.

Around that same time, the lone male golden-headed quetzal from Barcelona went to Walsrode, but also the last dwarf cassowary from NOP.

According to Zootierliste you are correct though… now I wonder where the NOP specimen went.
 
Whole old Emmen zoo was full of good exhibits.

From the tropical house in Veldhoven I remember e.g. grey-winged trumpeters, Egyptian plovers and curl-crested aracaris in the aviary.

The meadowbird aviary in Rotterdam was indeed a gem. Several male Ruffs established leks and one could watch the full display and the natural dynamics between dominant black-ruffed males and submissive white-ruffed male morph from a few meters distance.

It reminds me of the book 'The Undutchables'. It is a humorous tour though Dutch society. It says that Dutch people constantly try to improve things. And whatever was changed, for better or worse, is lost in the next round of changes.

In Zurich, the house which held black rhinos, pygmy hippos and shoebill lost much after it was converted to the Australian area.
 
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jwer said:
Hmm, at one point in time both NOP and Barcelona both held 1.0 (I actually saw both birds in a relatively short time). Both disappeared around the same time the 1.0 appeared at Walsrode.

Around that same time, the lone male golden-headed quetzal from Barcelona went to Walsrode, but also the last dwarf cassowary from NOP.

According to Zootierliste you are correct though… now I wonder where the NOP specimen went.
Click to expand...
In any case, to my knowledge the bird in Walsrode is now approaching 20 years of age.. so hopefully he still has a good few years left in him!
As it does seem unlikely they will get another one, but who knows..
 
Mr. Zootycoon said:
It is such a loss that this exhibit does not exist anymore. In my experience most Dutch people know more about endangered wildlife in Africa and Asia than they do about our native species. Avocets raise too few chicks to replace the population almost every year now. The only reason shovellers hardly decrease anymore on conventional farmland is because there are almost none left! We have lost over 99% of our ruffs in the last 30 years. Yet at this moment, I think Amsterdam is the only major Dutch zoo that still displays our meadowbirds. This is a conservation issue so close to home, and zoos like Rotterdam, Amersfoort, even Rhenen, are right in the middle of it (which means: there are literally dwindling meadowbird populations within cycling distance of these zoos!), yet almost all our zoos seem blind to it.

This is one of the biggest issues I have with most Dutch zoos. Wildlife conservation is almost always portrayed as a far from home issue, yet many species are disappearing from our zoos own "backyards". If zoos are serious about their commitment to wildlife conservation, I think at least a bit more attention on our native species is warranted. Good examples are not far away!
Click to expand...

To add to this Thread; the old Waddenaviary at Burgers' Zoo!
 
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