What Happens After Hours? Most animals end their day after the guests leave, hunkering down for a well-earned night of sleep. But what about the zoo’s nocturnal species? What do they do after dark? Read on to find out.
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Day for Night
Many of the zoo’s nocturnal species reside at Regenstein Small Mammal-Reptile House. The Gallery section of the building alone includes La Plata three-banded armadilDo you light up the los, cactus mice, lesser Madagascar cages of nocturnal hedgehog tenrecs, pygmy slow lorises, animals at nighttime, Egyptian and straw-colored fruit bats like the bushbaby and and Moholi bushbabies (also known the loris, so they can as galagos). be active and “play”? To ensure visitors will see these ani–Grace Palacio mals active and not snoozing, a reversed light cycle is established. From 9 a.m.–7 p.m. the lights are on but very dim, simulating moonlight; from 7 p.m.–9 a.m. they’re on full blast. It’s the exact opposite of the schedule for the Gallery’s dirurnal (daytime active) species. In some cases it makes exhibit maintenance a relative snap. “When we want the galagos to go into their off-exhibit holding area, we turn the lights off in holding and turn them on in the exhibit,” says Curator Diane Mulkerin. “They automatically shift over.” The bushbabies also have a habit of waking up around 6:30
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a.m. “It’s the only time you can see them moving around with the lights on,” says Mulkerin. Visitors who’ve sought out the Hoffman’s two-toed sloths and dwarf crocodiles and caimans in the building’s glass-domed Ecosystem know these nocturnal animals rarely move during sunlit hours. “That’s why it’s a great idea to visit during ZooLights Presented by ComEd and Charter One, when the building stays open late for the public,” says Mulkerin. “The crocodilians swim around more, and the sloths climb trees and all over the mesh.”
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Unlike their wild counterparts, the African lions at the zoo don’t have to hunt at night. They’re a bit more active after-hours, though, says Curator of Mammals Mark Kamhout. “Sahar is younger, so he’s more curious,” says Kamhout of the zoo’s 3-year-old male lion. “He’ll go outside in the evening and early morning. He’s very observant of everything around him.” The big cats and other mammals with outdoor yards at the zoo have outdoor access at night and can go in or out. (The animals at the Farm-in-the-Zoo are an exception to the rule and are kept indoors overnight.) But they often prefer to hang out in their behind-the-scenes living spaces. “Those areas serve a purpose,” says Kamhout. “There’s hay bedding in there. That’s where they’re fed.” The four young sisters in the zoo’s African wild dog pack— whose wild counterparts sometimes hunt in the early evening— often opt for a group nap in the late afternoon. “They pile up on each other,” says Kamhout. “It looks like one big wild dog.”