Under Construction: Night Hunters VIII

Time is going by so fast! The new Night Hunters exhibit will be open before you know it. Here are some pictures of the latest progress.

You’ll walk under a trellis (yet to be built) and enter the exhibit building through the new door on the left. Then you’ll exit the building through the door on the right. The old Cat House exit was on the opposite side of the building than the entry. People who weren’t familiar with the Zoo didn’t know where they were when they came out. They would have to find their way around the building to get back to the entrance if they had to pick up a stroller or meet with anyone in their group who didn’t go into the building. So it was a priority to have visitors come out in the same area in which they entered.

If you’re familiar with the old Cat House, you’ll remember the seating area that was located in the middle of the long hallway. Those stair benches have been ripped out and a new enclosure is being built for vampire bats. There will be three viewing windows. The first one will be of a cave-like roost and I imagine it will look similar to the current exhibit in the Nocturnal House. The bats can hang out in the roost or go into the adjoining forest exhibit. Imagine a three-dimensional tree trunk sticking out of the wall in between the 2nd and 3rd windows and branches coming out of the wall overhead.

A new enclosure is being built to display a small nocturnal primate, the pygmy slow loris. The loris is more of a fruit and gums feeder than a hunter, so why is it going in the Night Hunters building? You’ll notice a glass window at the back of the enclosure that looks onto the clouded leopard exhibit, a night hunter that might prey on a pygmy slow loris in the wild. The loris helps us tell the larger story of a tropical forest ecosystem and how both predator and prey play important roles.

More photos to come later!