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Nocturnal House - Dream Animal Collection

Discussion in 'Speculative Zoo Design and Planning' started by sniffer, 5 Jan 2014.

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  1. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    is this a nocturnal house as a sole attraction, or is it part of a zoo? I don't know why you would have koalas in a nocturnal house. They are either sleepy or sleeping, with brief periods of being awake when they are hungry. And day or night they are just sitting in the crook of a tree, so are far better suited to being in a normally-lit enclosure where, A) they can actually be seen properly, and B) can get sun.

    With all the lists, my points from page one still stand, that the only animals really suited for nocturnal houses are those that are properly nocturnal or cave-dwelling so have no benefit from sunlight, and are of a generally small body-size (e.g. leopards in a nocturnal house? They rarely get a proper-sized enclosure in a zoo, so why stick them in an even smaller cage?). I know one can argue that a leopard could be in a mega-sized nocturnal exhibit, but the logistics of that, especially in the lighting to enable the animal to actually be seen (which is literally the sole point of having an animal in a nocturnal house), are pretty substantial.
     
    Chlidonias, 25 Jun 2017
    #41
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  2. ShonenJake13

    ShonenJake13 Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Again, from what I've seen of documentation in the wild koalas are incredibly active after dark, wandering around on the floor, across roads and all sorts. And in the Night Safari (though arguably that isn't a nocturnal house) they manage to keep leopards in a netted enclosure just fine.

    The house wouldn't necessarily be in total darkness. The crepuscular species would have a couple of white spotlights, and the totally nocturnal species would have red or blue lighting.

    It is a fantasy thread to be fair, but nevertheless I'll go with your points and switch out koalas for New Guinea ground cuscus, and Javan leopards will go, with Pallas' cats being added in the Eurasia section instead.
     
    Last edited: 25 Jun 2017
    ShonenJake13, 25 Jun 2017
    #42
  3. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    my opinion is that even fantasy threads should be realistic (if that makes sense), and you do strike me as the sort of person who (even in a fantasy zoo) would want the animals to receive the best options of care.
     
    Chlidonias, 25 Jun 2017
    #43
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  4. ShonenJake13

    ShonenJake13 Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Yeah no I agree with you @Chlidonias, just stating my case as to why I chose those specific animals :) but Pallas' cat and New Guinea ground cuscus work fine anyways!
     
    ShonenJake13, 25 Jun 2017
    #44
  5. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    you added this as an edit after I'd posted before so I didn't see it, but I'll comment now on red versus blue or white light.

    Nocturnal houses use white or blue because it looks more "natural", like moonlight. However red is actually far preferable. It looks really unnatural, but most nocturnal animals obviously can't see red light well so the light-levels can be higher, which means viewing is much easier for the visitors. And even with equal light levels, the animals are always going to be more active under red light than blue or white, because to them it is much darker.

    In the wild, nocturnal animals do tend to be more active on moonless or clouded nights than nights with full moons. Even in nocturnal houses I have seen where animals become very much more active when outages cut the blue lights - i.e. the total darkness is much more to their liking than the "normal" level of lighting.

    I do have a suspicion too, that in enclosures which appear very dark (with red light) the inhabitants are less stressed by visitors than when in better-lit enclosures, even allowing for noise levels being the same.
     
    Chlidonias, 25 Jun 2017
    #45
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  6. gentle lemur

    gentle lemur Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    I agree with Chlidonias that indoor nocturnal houses should only house purely nocturnal species, such as galagos, lorises, dormice, hedgehogs and smaller bats (conspicuously absent in SJ's list). I would suggest a separate underground display for burrowing species, dimly lit but linked to outdoor exhibits above ground (for aardwolves, aardvarks and even meerkats etc) with a darker section, completely indoors, for cave species.
    I think the problem is displaying crepuscular species. I would build a separate section of the zoo for them, which would only be open in the afternoon and evening. The exhibits would all have outdoor sections facing south west, so that the animals could bask in the afternoon sun and be observed when they were active towards dusk. The lighting cycle would be based on natural daylight, perhaps with a little extra illumination at dusk in the winter. Feeding times and planting would be arranged to encourage activity at appropriate times. I think that this might suit some of the smaller cats, civets, cuscus, fruit bats, badgers and a range of other species.
    Note that I have only considered mammals in these examples, but obviously other animals could be accommodated in these ways.
     
    gentle lemur, 25 Jun 2017
    #46
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  7. ShonenJake13

    ShonenJake13 Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Thanks for the suggestions gentle lemur and Chlidonias, I'll bear them in mind :)
     
    ShonenJake13, 25 Jun 2017
    #47
  8. Giganotosaurus5

    Giganotosaurus5 Member

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    There are plenty of animals I would love to have in a perfect nocturnal collection, but to be realistic, I obviously have to trim the collection down a bit.

    I think, in my nocturnal house, a good lineup would be: (by the way, large spaces mean animals in different "zones": different continents, like Africa)

    Lowland Streaked Tenrec (Hemicentetes semispinosus)
    Lesser Hedgehog Tenrec (Enchinops telfairi)
    Malagasy Giant Rat (Hypogeomys antimena)
    Aye-Aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis)
    Gray Mouse Lemur (Microcebus murinus)
    Malagasy Civet (Fossa fossana)
    Senegal Bushbaby (Galago senegalensis)


    Kinkajou (Potos flavus)
    Gray-Bellied Night Monkey (Aotus lemurinus)
    Gray-Handed Night Monkey (Aotus griseimembra)
    Red-Eyed Tree Frog (Agalychnis callidryas)
    Ocelot (Leopardus pardalis)
    Oncilla (Leopardus tigrinus)
    Margay (Leopardus wiedii)


    Sugar Glider (Petaurus breviceps)
    Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii)
    Greater Bilby (Macrotis lagotis)


    Philippine Tarsier (Carlito syrichta)
    Bengal Slow Loris (Nycticebus bengalensis)
    Iranian Jerboa (Allactaga firouzi)


    European Hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus)
    Cyprus Spiny Mouse (Acomys nesiotes)


    Southern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys volans)



    Obviously this is just my list, and this is clearly excepting omni-present nocturnal house species, like bats. Probably most of the species would have access to outdoor areas if they so desired.
     
    Giganotosaurus5, 27 Jun 2017
    #48
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