New arrivals are settling in at the new Alliance for Sustainable Wildlife. Some include bongos, sable antelope, and yellow-backed duiker. https://wtop.com/science/2017/09/home-on-the-range-antelope-get-new-digs-in-new-orleans/
Female gorilla Tumani arrived from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. New gorilla at Audubon Zoo may stay indoors for a little bit
A giraffe was born at the Species Survival Center. New Year celebration: Baby giraffe born in New Orleans
Construction began on the lion exhibit - set to open next year. WVUE : Construction begins on the Audubon Zoo's new lion exhibit
Criaturas de la Noche (Spanish for “Creatures of the Night”) opens in a couple days: https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2018-03-21/audubon-zoos-newest-building-turns-day-to-night
I've been eagerly anticipating the opening of this project and it is nice to finally learn some details. Seba's short-tailed bats (200 of them!), vampire bats, poison dart frogs, green tree frogs, giant cave cockroaches, tarantulas, ring-tailed cats and douroucoulis. The whole thing sounds fantastic as I'm a big fan of Nocturnal Houses.
I watched the video of this a while back, and, having recently learned of London Zoo's Land of the Lions exhibit, I can't help wonder if they're drawing some inspiration -- the train setup seems pretty on the nose. Very nice. It sounds like a great setup. Though, I keep imagining Olmec from Legends of the Hidden Temple when they're describing the idol head!
I have just visited Audubon Zoo for the first time, and toured the new Criaturas de la Noche Bat House, which is adjacent to the existing Jaguar Jungle and South America Pampas exhibit areas. The new structure is rather small and contains 9 exhibits within its very dark interior. The visitor pathway is a short one-way route inside the simulated archeological dig shack. 3 of the exhibits are small room-sized enclosures with floor-to-ceiling glass panels, while the other 6 are smaller wall exhibits of various sizes. Each exhibit contains one species, seen in this order: Seba's Short-tailed Bat Nancy Ma's Night Monkey Anthony's Poison Arrow Frog Central American Giant Cave Roach Red-eyed Tree Frog Costa Rican Zebra Tarantula Venezuelan Suntiger Tarantula Common Vampire Bat Ring-tailed Cat When I visited, the Seba's short-tailed bats were very active, although difficult to really see individuals in the flurry and a bit of lighting glare since their exhibit is viewed from two sides. Otherwise everything else did not present itself. The level of detail of the exhibits was a little above average, and I think it is a nice addition to the zoo's Central and South American area. Bat House - Exterior by geomorph posted 10 Apr 2018 at 12:17 PM Bat House - Entry Area by geomorph posted 10 Apr 2018 at 12:17 PM Bat House - Seba's Short-tailed Bat Exhibit by geomorph posted 10 Apr 2018 at 12:17 PM Bat House - Seba's Short-tailed Bat Exhibit by geomorph posted 10 Apr 2018 at 12:17 PM Bat House - Seba's Short-tailed Bat Exhibit by geomorph posted 10 Apr 2018 at 12:17 PM Bat House - Nancy Ma's Night Monkey Exhibit by geomorph posted 10 Apr 2018 at 12:23 PM Bat House - Various Small Wall Exhibits by geomorph posted 10 Apr 2018 at 12:23 PM Bat House - Anthony's Poison Arrow Frog Exhibit by geomorph posted 10 Apr 2018 at 12:23 PM Bat House - Red-eyed Tree Frog Exhibit and Tarantula Exhibits by geomorph posted 10 Apr 2018 at 12:23 PM Bat House - Common Vampire Bat Exhibit by geomorph posted 10 Apr 2018 at 12:23 PM Bat House - Ring-tailed Cat Exhibit by geomorph posted 10 Apr 2018 at 12:27 PM Bat House - Side Exterior by geomorph posted 10 Apr 2018 at 12:27 PM
@geomorph Thanks for the tour of the nocturnal exhibit. Did you have a chance to visit the Insectarium and the aquarium also? If so, is it possible that you could review them?
I did go to the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas and the Audubon Butterfly Garden and Insectarium, and I will be organizing and editing my pictures for them all in the future as well as making a species list for each; perhaps I will alter my species list style to insert opinion commentary, not sure yet as I have not enjoyed writing proper reviews for several years .
Any review you have of the Insectarium in particular (no matter how brief) would be especially welcome. I look forward to seeing your photos.
@geomorph Thanks for the walkthrough of the nocturnal house! Judging from your pictures, the house looks heavily themed, but did you find it that way when you visited? Species lists for all 3 places would be appreciated.
Yes it’s definitely themed, including an interactive talking wall panel that looks like a wall carving figure.
Here's an article about the Cuban treefrog invading the zoo area of New Orleans: Poisonous Cuban treefrog invades Audubon Park, Zoo
How did they get there? Is the plant import from Florida a definite confirmation for the invasive species now or has it not yet been firmly established?? I do hope this will not be on a similar plane of disaster as the bull frog - Australia story.
BioPark orangutan moves to Audubon Zoo in New Orleans Audubon Zoo's newest orangutan Reese has arrived from Albuquerque.
Audubon Zoo closed after jaguar escapes exhibit, kills 6 other animals, officials say This is Valerio who was transferred from San Diego Zoo. Thank goodness the zoo was not opened.
Very sad news, I suspect the jaguar was out of its habitat for a long period of time since the animals that it attacked were spread out in different areas of the zoo. My current red fox avatar is one of the animals attacked, perhaps the fox that was killed.
I saw this earlier today. Got an email alert from Audubon about a tragedy at the zoo and immediately thought the worst. Fortunately the zoo was closed. The Washington Post described it as a "territorial killing rampage". I'd hardly call it a "rampage". If there's a silver lining, Valerio had a fantastic day.
