Would anyone here have any info or pics, regarding the small nocturnal house that was situated for many years in the old childrens zoo. I know from guidebooks that they held the aardvarks here for many years and bred them too (were any of the births successful?). Along with galagos, lorises, porcupines and douroucoulis amongst others. Would be really interested if anyone out there can put some meat on the bones.
The nocturnal house was a narrow, long(ish) building situated roughly between the splash zone and the penguin pool. When I first saw it in 1986, most of the compartments had been combined at ground level, with interconnecting doors, for the aardvarks to make use of the majority of the ground space. I think only douracouli were left with them.
The old Nocturnal House in the Children’s Zoo opened in 1963. ZSL annual reports list aardvark as being born in 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1986; sadly, though, all of these died within thirty days. I seem to remember an aardvark birth later than 1986, too, but have mislaid the relevant annual report.
I'm sure they hand-rearead an arrdavark. I remember seeing something about a keeper who took the baby home with her on the Underground. I only remember the house in 1985 and all I can remeber about it was seeing an aardvark.
Old Nocturnal House at London Zoo Not sure if this is false memory, but I think I saw two Giant Pangolins in there once. Were they ever here, however briefly?
I remember the house and I think I took one or two photos in it (probably very bad). I certainly remember aardvarks and douroucoulis. Was it used as a dry run to help them get things right when they were planning the Moonlight World in the Clore Pavilion? Alan
Further to my earlier post, I have located the ZSL Annual Report that I was looking for. The report for 1987 / 1988 includes a photograph of a young aardvark “born in summer 1987, and hand-reared in the Children’s Zoo”. Surprisingly, though, this birth is not listed in the animal inventory, for 1987, that is included in this report.
Indeed, the Nocturnal House in the Children’s Zoo was built as a prototype for the Moonlight World in the Clore Pavilion (which opened four years later).
The only annual report I can check is Chester's. There are about a dozen mistakes in the animal inventory for 2010, I am waiting for the zoo to reply to my email regarding these.
According to the aardvark Studbook,London Zoo's Breeding Pair"Albert" and"Edwina"bred seven times between 1981 and 1989-six of the youngsters died within a week and just one male survived for month-maybe it was a this suspected handraised one ? "Albert"died in 1989 and the female was send to Banham in 1991.
The aardvarks used to share an enclosure with Senegal bushbabies nearest the entrance. The notice for the aardvarks was hidden by the corner, but that for the bushbabies was quite prominent. I remember two visitors talking about an aardvark. "What's that?" "It's a bushbaby." "It leaps fro tree to tree" - some feat for an aardvark.
