Fuengirola zoo is now open at night-time until August 31st. As dusk falls orang-utans and chimpanzees give way to bats and servals

news date: Monday, July 19, 2004

A night out in the bush
 

When the sun begins to dip below the horizon, Fuengirola zoo, far from shutting up shop for the night, remains a hive of activity. From 8 p.m. onwards the staff - guards and keepers - start getting the grounds ready for a different type of atmosphere for after-dark visits. Until August 31st (and since July 1st) the grounds will remain open at night to offer visitors an unusual view of the zoo, where they will discover a different atmosphere with nocturnal animals.

This is the only zoo in Europe which opens its gates until midnight and only the second in the world, after the one in Singapore. Through a complicated system of artificial lighting, which fakes the light of a full moon, night in a tropical forest is recreated. “All the light is very soft because we don’t want to disturb the animals and there will never be any sort of spotlight throwing direct light onto them”, explains the press officer, Diana Serop.

Left to sleep in peace

But not all the animals can sleep outside. Some with daytime habits, such as the chimpanzees, have to rest without any noise or light to disturb their sleep. They will be substituted for species which are active at dusk – such as the serval, a slender feline from the African bush, and the dhole, a wild Asian canine – and other strictly nocturnal species, including the tiger and the Malayan tapir. “At nine o’clock in the evening we change several of the pens; for instance the one where the gorillas are normally housed is cleared and the servals, a type of lynx, comes out instead”, comments the press officer.

The orang-utans are switched for dholes, also known as red dogs. These fierce animals are capable of climbing up to the highest branches of trees. This contrasts with the lazy way that the porcupines, with their long black and white spines, amble along. “It’s a beautiful sight”, exclaims one of the tourists.

The rest of the fauna stay in the same pens but become even more active than during the morning. “The ideal visit would be to arrive at the zoo at seven in the evening so as to be able to see all the species in their natural habitat; then have dinner in the restaurant here and finally embark on a night-time visit”, recommends one of the keepers .

Although both the pace and the amount of activity drops off in the evening, compared with the daytime, some of the guided tours are just as popular at this time of day. An example is the one to the baobab, an African tree that is capable of storing 120,000 litres of water but which, once empty, the bush fauna turn into their den. “What we have here in Fuengirola is an exact reproduction of the tree, created by Fine Arts graduates”, explains the guide.