World's Best Nocturnal House?

Chlidonias said:
if that's the one that was at Kuranda, just out of Cairns, its gone now, apparently due to some sort of corruption scandal (so the local gossip-mongers told me). On the site now is the "Venom Zoo" displaying spiders, snakes, etc
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Yes that was the one I was thinking of. I understand the (previous) display was very good. I do seem to recall that there were some problems some time ago.

I agree with your comments about Dusit Zoo. Nice collection in very bare pens, disappointing part of the park.

Although Singapore Night Safari should be the ultimate nocturnal display, I must say that I had a few problems with the set-up. For those exhibits that you can only see from the train, a visitor is limited by the train driver's timetable (you cannot stay and watch). Some exhibits are not particularly large, and one might have a different view if you were to see them in daylight. Too many flash cameras during the 'show', which is obviously difficult to police. Nicest bit was walking around the trails which many people seem to be too lazy to do.
 
although its sort of steering away from strict topic of Nocturnal Houses the problem I have with "night zoos" (including Singapore's) is that the amount of space given to the animals is often appallingly small. The animals "have" to be kept within a certain distance of the visitors to allow them to remain properly visible in the dark and thus although they appear to be in very large enclosures this is (often, not always) purely an illusion through the use of hot-wires etc which are rendered invisble in the low light. If those same enclosures were used as daytime zoo enclosures many people that rave about night zoos would be complaining over the lack of room for the animals.
 
tetrapod said:
Just remembered that there was (may still exist) a place in Northern Queensland which was called something like the Noctalarium. There was a large room with a number of species which you could walk-through aka. Chester's Bat Twilight room.
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Kuranda had the Noctarium which became the Nocturnal Zoo and which has now been re-invented as the Venom Zoo.
 
Steve Robinson said:
Kuranda had the Noctarium which became the Nocturnal Zoo and which has now been re-invented as the Venom Zoo.
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Oops! Should have read page 2 first!!!

Have to agree with the couple of comments about the Singapore Night Zoo. Having heard the raves about it we went and were a bit disappointed. By day we were VERY, VERY disappointed.

I haven't yet seen a really good Nocturnal House but I haven't seen any of the ones in mainland Europe. The one at Symbio [south of Sydney] is not bad in parts. Some of the enclosures are much larger than we usually see in Nocturnal Houses.

Our own plans are still along the lines of opening the zoo one night a week in summer. As an Aussie zoo we "have" to keep possums, bettongs, gliders etc but they are almost useless as daytime exhibits. Viewing them at night should be less stressful for them and a better experience for our visitors.
 
Anybody mentioned Rotterdam? It has rather big bat cave with huge colony of Egyptian fruit bats. The exhibit is lively, although malayan civet on a sh*t-covered concrete floor seemed rather unhappy.

The zoo keeps also cave racer (or bat-eating) snakes, but in the other house.
 
snowleopard said:
It's interesting to see how rare nocturnal houses actually are in the U.S., even with hundreds of zoos all across the country. Not counting the odd bat cave here and there, I could only find 13 zoos with nocturnal houses. There might be a few more kicking around at minor zoos, but these buildings are difficult to come by.

Bronx, Philadelphia (wing of small mammal house), Woodland Park, Omaha, Memphis, Fort Worth (small building in "Texas Wild!"), Brookfield (Aussie house is darkened), Cincinnati, Columbus (Aussie house), Milwaukee County, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum (small number of species), Rio Grande Zoo and San Diego Zoo (kiwi birds).

Of those 13 establishments I've actually visited 10 of them, and in reality the zoos with fairly large nocturnal houses equals these 5 zoos. I've ranked them in order of their nocturnal houses.

#1 Omaha
#2 Woodland Park
#3 Bronx
#4 Memphis
#5 Cincinnati
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I've only been to 5 or 6 of the ones of the 13 you've counted (Omaha not being among them, unfortunately) but I'd generally agree with your ranked list with the exception of Bronx. I love and adore most things Bronx but the World of Darkness there is just too dark! It is large and does have a great amount of species that is impressive but I personally find it far too dark to really appreciate that.

Maybe it's my newfound love for all things Ohio but I'd put Cincinnati higher and loved the aussie house.
 
Just wanted to add, the nocturnal house at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle was one of my favorite places in my childhood, and when I sent my child up to visit with my parents I was dismayed to find it had been gone 14 years. To make the story even sadder, there are no big nocturnal houses close to me in northern California. So there's a relic of my childhood that is gone forever. I'll have to console myself with the lil mosquito eaters we have around our house, precious things, just stay out of my house and attic please.
 
snowleopard said:
If a zoo has a nocturnal house then it is a real treat for my wife and I, as often those buildings are one of the highlights of our zoo trip. Of the many such houses that we have visited, the following two are arguably the two biggest and quite possibly two of the best in the world.

Animals & Exhibits | Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo

The link above is to "Kingdoms of the Night" the world's largest and possibly best nocturnal house. It is found at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, which specializes in massive zoo buildings. With over 75 animal species, including 8 species of bat, the area is .75 of an acre in size and fantastic to visit. The pool of water in the photo is actually 16 feet deep, and the world's largest indoor swamp is also part of this spectacular exhibit.

Alice Springs Desert Park -

The Alice Springs Desert Park houses a terrific collection of Australian animals, and is located in the dead centre of Australia. It contains the largest nocturnal house in the southern hemisphere, and after visiting it in 2007 I've often compared the park to the equally small yet brilliant Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in the U.S.

The nocturnal house at the Alice Springs Desert Park is more traditional in layout, as unlike the Henry Doorly Zoo visitors are not immersed into their surroundings. However, it is still fantastic and contains many reptiles, amphibians and mammals that are not found at any zoo outside of Australia. If you go to the "Park Map" page on the website and click on "Nocturnal House" there is a 31 second video of the building and its occupants.

Does anyone have any more truly world class nocturnal houses to add to these two?
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To be honest I believe Night Safari from Singapore deserve to be here.
 
Surprisingly, no one here has mentioned Ueno Zoo. They only not have one, not two, but three nocturnal houses!
The main nocturnal house of the zoo is based off an Asian forest and has slow loris, masked musang as well as rare species like Chinese pangolin and Leschenault's rousette. It also used to have the last mouse deer in Japan.
The second one is more of a nocturnal section, as it's a basement for Ueno's small mammal house. It has many species like dormice, jerboa, Pallas cat, echidna, dourocouli, aardvark, woylie, Seba's short tailed bat, kinkajou and most importantly, the only tarsier outside of Southeast Asia and the only Prince Demidoff's bushbabies in captivity!
The last one is the Aye Aye Forest, housing one of the largest groups of aye-ayes in captivity as well as housing hedgehog tenrecs and Madagascar hissing cockroaches.
The best themed one definitely is the Asian nocturnal house, as it was designed off an Asian forest and matches a night there.
Although many don't think of these nocturnal houses to be the best, I think they definitely deserve to be recognized.
 
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