Avifauna has owls, kiwi, tawny frogmouth and stone curlews in a nocturnal house. Except the kiwi they are in an walktroughenclosure.
Kiwis in a walk-through-aviary ? In a daylight section ? Could be a boring exhibit. And the park never will bred kiwis in a walk-through-aviary.
You don't read, they are all in a nocturnal house, and except the kiwi also in a walktrough enclosure.
Maybe some of you know, Bristol has opened the first real Nocturnal House in the world in 1954, altough it wasn't an"british idea". For unknown reasons, this House was rebuild into a freeflight aviary in 1967, but I want to know, why the Zoos has closed the Nocturnal House ? Unfortunately, the zoo's history book gives no answer. I belive, maybe the technique wasn't good enough at this time, so the house has failed and the zoo wanted to collect more experiences from the new,much bigger Nocturnal Houses, which were opened at London Zoo in 1967 or in the Usa´in 1964. But also Bristol second Nocturnal House from 1981 was closed in 1992 or 1993 and was rebuild into the present Bug World, so the third House,Twillight Zone, was opened in 1996 and is fortunately still operating. Does anybody of the british members has a few more details to the first Nocturnal House, so how many exhibits were in it and how many and what species wer kept there ?
Question to all London Experts around here-does anybody has a full list of the species, which are kept now in the Moonlight World ( which turned into"Nightlife" a couple of years ago)? It's many years ago I've been the last time to the Zoo, but what I could find out are only 12 species-but this can't be... So as far as I know, at present time, there are only Sugar Gliders Grey slender Lori Potto Moholi Malagays Jumping Rat Brown Rat Naked Mole Rat Australian water rat Chinchilla Blind Cave Fish Hissing Cockroach Cave Cricket in the Moonlight World. Can anybody confirm that or adding some more species ? It seems a little bit to less for me,I remember Moonlight World as a very large Nocturnal department within the Clore Pavillion.I know,they made it much smaller, but in that dimensions ? Thank you.
I believe the only species you are missing on the list is Seba's Short-tailed Bat; until this time last year they also held Panay Cloud Rat but these are now offshow.
The exhibits which were formerly at the start and end of the old Moonlight World were demolished to become the ground area of the Rainforest. Many of the other exhibits have been combined to make larger ones (which are much more satisfactory). In consequence the number of species on display now is only a fraction of the number shown 40 years ago. Alan
In 1967, when the Moonlight hall was opened, they had around 50 Species in it, which made it the "largest"Nocturnal House in Europe.Frankfurt is only in space larger,not in the number of species.The highest number of species in the Nocturnal Section in Frankfurt was 32 in 1983, today they keep 24 species in it (only Night-Section)
When I visited in August 2012, they had the majority of the Cloudrats offshow for breeding purposes - as I believe had always been the case - and 1,1 kept onshow for display. A keeper I spoke to at the time said the female was quite skittish, so it is possible they were taken offshow to join the others in an offshow breeding situation.
It's a shame that two of the most interesting species in the nocturnal section are now off-display, these being the cloud rats and aye-aye. London need to get their priorities right!
But the Aye-Aye's never were housed in the Moonlight World, and I'm sure, the Zoo has good reasons to keep both species behind the Scenes ( there are still Aye-Aye's at London Zoo ? )
From what I've read and heard on here the aye-ayes are in The Clore but off-show, not sure if that is still the case now though. They were displayed in the roundhouse originally, I don't know what that is now used for though?
In February there were Rodrigues' flying foxes. It was the first time ever I was able to enter the roundhouse. I was told then that the Aye-Aye were indeed off-show in the Clore.
Does anybody knows what species are currently hold in Moonlight World in the Clore ? The list shouldn't be too long, around 12 species or so ? As far as I know: Kinkajou Clouded Rat Potto Slender Lori Australian water rat Moholi Giant Jumping Rat Naked Role Rat Seba's Short-tailed Bat What are the others ?
I think the following is the complete list: Panay Cloud Rat Potto Slender Loris Australian Water Rat Moholi Galago Giant Jumping Rat Naked Mole Rat Seba's Short-tailed Bat Brown Rat Chinchilla I think the Kinkajou is held elsewhere.
When I visited a month ago, there were no Chinchillas but there were Blind Cave Fish. The Kinkajous (along with Chinchilla, Yellow Mongoose, Ferret, and Large Hairy Armadillos) were held in enclosures in the building with the Bearded Pigs and the Tapir. (Sorry, I don't know the name of the building but I'm sure someone will tell me)
