Zoos have also been moving towards displays that showcase one headline species with a few satellite enclosures for smaller species.
I've noticed this as well; Beauval's new hippo exhibit is another example. I don't know what you think of the trend, but I'm not a fan. It invariably leads to costlier exhibits that skimp on space for the mammals and overshadow the birds. Visually obtrusive mesh also distracts from otherwise naturalistic enclosures.
Here in the USA most new bird exhibits that once would have involved flightless (flight deprived?) wading species in open exhibits -- cranes, flamingos, etc. - now are being built with mesh due to avian flu. Very real implications for size and cost of the exhibit.
These are observations I've gathered from this site and from zoo visits and this is just a U.S. perspective -Elephants are being phased out of a lot of northern zoos and it seems that they are often replaced with rhinos. -Polar bears seem to be disappearing from zoos -Hoofstock varieties seem to be dwindling -Giraffe feedings are popular these days -Peafowl are being phased out of some zoos -In general is seems that taxonomic exhibits (bird houses, reptiles houses, cat areas) are not as common. It's been in favor of geographical exhibits.
As huuuuge fan of hoofstock, this is making me so sad (and the same trend can be seen in europe too. )
Now I see less Puma, Rhesus monkey, Nilgai, Chimp, Kulan, Bison and Eland in Hungarian zoos. But I see more Red panda, Giant anteater and Pygmy hippo.
I hate to see this as well. Hoofstock are some of my favorite animals. I could visit a zoo that was entirely hoofstock and enjoy it.
Out of curiosity , why did Night / Nocturnal houses experience such a mass closing around that time in particular ? Personally, although I haven't been to many zoos that have these sorts of installations (only ZSL London and Bristol from what I remember) I think they are wonderful and deeply educational areas of zoos and it is a damn shame there aren't more of them. I would even go as far as saying that they are one of my favourite features of zoos as they have so much potential for conservation and raising awareness of the more cryptic species such as the aye-aye , slow and slender loris and the Malagasy giant jumping rat that would otherwise not fare very well in the public imagination or concern at all. Seems quite a pity to me that they went out of fashion and I'm just wondering why exactly this was.....
This is an old piece that I wrote for another thread and highlights why I believe that many old style nocturnal houses were awful. It is good they have closed.
I am sure with modern levels of expectation and finance, they could be done again. You are right though, in the past for primates and medium carnivores especially, some were simply dreadful. I was taken around the service passages of the Clore by Frank Wheeler, with the lights on; grim is a polite word, but no-where near descriptive...
I remember the Clore Pavillion in the 1970s, it was a stamp collection of mammals in low stimulus environments, which for the more intelligent species would have been a very dull life. Thankfully zoos have moved on from this and we now think more about the needs of the animals.
I agree - but that description was not confined to the Clore. It would equally describe the whole of London Zoo (and indeed, most others) so to expect one particular building to be significantly better than the general standard of the rest, would probably be unfair. All were the result of the expectations and aspirations of their day. But, I would say that as a visitor at the time, the Clore was the only reason I went...
I think there are two main reasons: 1) Most traditional nocturnal houses date from the 1960's. This means that most houses had many enclosures and that these were rather small. For example, the ones of Rotterdam Zoo and Artis were very sparsely decorated with just a sandy floor and some branches. The general trend of the 1990's and 2000's also applies on nocturnal houses: more space for a lesser number of species with more natural decorated enclosures. So, the zoos with nocturnal houses had to choose between closure and renovating. Antwerpen (from 33 to 7 enclosures, or such numbers), Berlin and London are examples of zoos that choose the former option, combining the numerous enclosures to a couple of large ones. Artis already closed the nocturnal house at the end of the 1980's because it didn't support the changed opinions on animal welfare anymore. Rotterdam Zoo did some modifications in the early 1980's, but still it wasn't suited anymore at the turn of the century. For Bronx Zoo, financial problems were the reason for closure (although the nocturnal wing of the Mouse is a good alternative). 2) Many animals are polyphasic and not strictly diurnal or nocturnal. Several species that have been kept in nocturnal houses in the past are equally suited for conventional - in day light enclosures - keeping, especially larger ones like aardvarks, sloths, tamanduas, armadillos, wombats, fennec foxes and duikers. For several species of small primates (loris, galago, mouse lemur, aye-aye), rodents and small marsupials as well as microbats nocturnal houses are still the best way to show them to the public. That is probably the reason many Australian zoos have very good nocturnal houses (for example Perth, Taronga, Alice Springs and Territory WP) with numerous native (and quite often endangered) species that are suited.
I think the long term trend over many decades is away from 'Houses' into zones or regions or areas with a variety of exhibits linked by some sort of geographical or habitat-based theme. Indeed Chester has abandoned the word 'House' altogether and some of the staff will correct you if you use it: so I take occasional opportunities to mock the two Realms, two Forests, one Secret World, one Journey and even the Spirit. But nocturnal exhibits are far from extinct in the UK. The 'Fruit Bat Forest' at Chester is big, if not particularly beautiful, and the aye-aye exhibits adjoining the 'Tropical Realm' are bigger, better and newer than London's or Bristol's. Dudley has a nocturnal house of sorts in 'Castle Creatures' inside the shell of the old Castle. Little Shaldon has a nocturnal room for its lorises etc and Cotswold has added nocturnal displays for galagos (in 'Little Africa'), for mouse lemurs and for fruit bats (in the second section of the Reptile House) to its long established two-storey Egyptian fruit bat exhibit. As I type, I recall the nocturnal exhibits in Birmingham and Tropical World in Leeds too.
Interesting to read about Jersey's aye-aye set up, it would be very interesting to see it one day. I agree that there are far more creative / innovative options for displaying nocturnal mammals and particularly primates which would take greater account of the needs of their welfare than what were the standard practices in zoos of those times such as displaying as many species as possible , reversed light cycles, and access only to indoor enclosures etc. But I think that with some tweaking and modernization the concept of an area (or even simply certain enclosures ) displaying a select number of nocturnal species could work in zoos and meet the needs of both the animals held and ex-situ captive breeding while also being educational for visitors. From what you mention it seems like a setup achieving this kind of balance has already been successfully implemented with the aye-ayes at Jersey.
It's interesting to read about nocturnal houses. I haven't seen many of them in my travels but always thought they were interesting.
One trend in US zoos is raising cheetahs with dogs and hosting meet and greet sessions with them. According to a friend this is unheard of in Europe.
This is quite common in Australasia. Dog breeds like collies have been chosen for their stamina to keep up with the cheetah cub. To date I believe it’s only been done where peer raising isn’t an option - the dog has been used to provide some form of companionship/socialisation until the cheetah cub is at the late juvenile/early adolescent stage and can be introduced to another similar age cheetah. It’s also been common practice with tigers and lions. At least three zoos in the region have introduced orphaned cubs to a robust dog (Rhodesian ridgeback, German shepherd etc) - though experience has proven peer raising is essential if they are to have normal social interactions with other members of their species as adults. @elefante - I’d agree with your observation that elephants are being phased out of Northern zoos and replaced with rhinos. Two city zoos in Australasia have announced plans to phase their elephants out within the next few years (with the elephants moving to open range zoos) and there’s talk of them being replaced with rhinos.
