Bronx Zoo's fascinating World of Darkness exhibit reopens after 16-year hiatus
World of Darkness, the Bronx Zoo's 'groundbreaking' shadowy attraction showcasing more than two dozen rare and unusual nocturnal animals, is back after a 16-year hiatus.
4 World of Darkness, the Bronx Zoo's 'groundbreaking' shadowy attraction showcasing animals such as the sand cat (above), is back after a 16-year hiatus.
Terria Clay / Bronx Zoo
The revamped exhibit, which opened to the public Saturday, offers a glimpse into the behaviors and adaptations of 25 species across the world, from two-toed sloths and cloud rats to sand cats and vampire bats.
Entry to the 13,000-square-foot, 21-habitat exhibit is included with the purchase of a Bronx Zoo ticket.
4 Aye-ayes also are part of the exhibit.
Bronx Zoo
'The opening of the new World of Darkness will once again provide Bronx Zoo visitors with a unique immersion experience to observe amazing creatures that have evolved to live and thrive in darkness,' said Bronx Zoo Director and Wildlife Conservation Society Executive Vice President of Zoos & Aquarium Jim Breheny in a statement.
The first World of Darkness exhibit at the zoo opened in 1969. It served as the first major zoo exhibit to feature nocturnal animals in a 'reverse light cycle' so that onlookers could watch the nocturnal world in action during daytime hours, officials said.
The new modernized exhibit – the first iteration since the original closed in April 2009 because of financial issues – will continue on the legacy of creative lighting design, zoo officials said, with a new set of programmable LED lighting systems that simulate 'soft' sunrise and sunset transitions.
4 The modernized exhibit features creative lighting designs, zoo officials said.
Bronx Zoo
The 'reimagined' nocturnal house also offers 'immersive soundscapes, interactive elements, and meticulously recreated habitats' from tropical forests and wetlands to deserts and caves, the zoo said.
Visitors can expect hands-on educational consoles, outdoor photo-op stations and up-close views of blood pythons, tarantulas and naked mole rats.
The exhibit also serves as the zoo's only permanent bilingual attraction, with all signage, graphics and interactive elements in both English and Spanish.
4 A broad-snouted Caiman lays in wait at the Bronx Zoo's World of Darkness exhibit.
Julie Larsen / Bronx Zoo
The revitalized exhibit also features species rarely seen in zoos, including cloud rats, fat-tailed leumurs, and Guatemalan beaded lizards.
'Many New Yorkers have great memories of the exhibit which originally opened in 1969,' Breheny said, adding the zoo has 'updated all aspects of the experience to ensure an amazing opportunity to enter a shadowy world rarely seen.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
UPI
an hour ago
- UPI
Watch: BBC releases trailer for Nikolaj Coster-Waldau's 'King & Conqueror'
1 of 2 | A trailer for the BBC miniseries "King & Conqueror," starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, was released on Thursday. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo July 24 (UPI) -- The BBC released a trailer Thursday for King & Conqueror, an eight-part drama starring Game of Thrones alum Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Granchester actor James Norton. The British broadcaster expects to air the historical epic on BBC One and BBC iPlayer later this year. The cast also includes Emily Beecham, Clémence Poésy, Eddie Marsan, Elliott Cowan and Juliet Stevenson. "King & Conqueror is the story of a clash that defined the future of a country -- and a continent -- for 1,000 years, the roots of which stretch back decades and extend out through a pair of interconnected family dynasties, struggling for power across two countries and a raging sea," a synopsis for the series said. "Harold of Wessex and William of Normandy were two men destined to meet at the Battle of Hastings in 1066; two allies with no design on the English throne, who found themselves forced by circumstance and personal obsession into a war for possession of its crown."
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Netflix Announces Major Wednesday Update – And 1 Exciting Hint About It's Future
If you were one of the millions of fans who helped make Wednesday the most-watched English-language Netflix show of all time, there's some very good news about the future of the series. With season two of the award-winning reimagining of The Addams Family starring Jenna Ortega coming this August, there's now even more cause for celebration as Netflix has renewed for a third season. The streamer confirmed the news on its social media this week, sharing a post of Wednesday holding a spooky crystal ball with the number three on it, along with the tagline 'bad things come in threes'. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Wednesday Netflix (@wednesdaynetflix) The caption added: 'Season 2 awakens in two weeks. Season 3 is the next omen, already in motion, already inevitable.' And not only has Wednesday been confirmed for season three, but it looks like a spinoff series is in the early stages of discussions. As revealed in a new joint interview with star Jenna and director and executive producer Tim Burton in The Hollywood Reporter, showrunner Alfred Gough said a secretive spinoff is 'something we're definitely noodling; there are other characters we can look at'. She would never leave you hanging. Wednesday has been officially renewed for Season 3. Season 2 awakens in two weeks. — Netflix (@netflix) July 23, 2025 Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria also hinted that 'there's a lot to explore in the Addams Family'. While further details about the future of Wednesday remain under wraps for now, showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar added in a statement (via Deadline): 'It's been a dark delight to watch Wednesday cast her spell over audiences across the globe – one deadpan quip at a time. We're beyond thrilled she'll be returning to stalk the halls of Nevermore in Season 3. 'This time, she'll unearth more of the school's sinister secrets – and descend even deeper into the Addams family crypt. Or, as Wednesday would say: 'Nothing brings a family together like a good exhumation'.' In a statement to Netflix's Tudum, Alfred did give one hint that we will be 'seeing more Addams Family members and learning more family secrets in Season 3'. The news comes after fans learned last year that Lady Gaga was reported to be in a guest role for season two. Other new additions to the season two cast include Billie Piper, Thandiwe Newton, Joanna Lumley and Steve Buscemi. Part one of season two is set to drop on 6 August, with part two arriving on 3 September. Related... Will There Be An Untamed Season 2? Here's Everything We Know So Far Lady Gaga Has Joined The Cast Of This Absolutely Massive Netflix Show Stranger Things Creator Sets The Record Straight On 1 Major Rumour Ahead Of Season 5
Chicago Tribune
4 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Review: Dystopian ‘Frontieres Sans Frontieres' by Theatre Y raises provocative questions
In the opening scene of 'Frontieres Sans Frontieres' at Theatre Y, three orphans play together in a sort of dystopian Neverland, a vision of how the fantastical home of Peter Pan and the Lost Boys might look if located in a postindustrial wasteland. Broken-down construction equipment and various scavenged items form a makeshift shelter for this disparate trio of stateless individuals who have united as a little family despite their linguistic and cultural differences. As the eldest, a young teen named Win (Tania Gillian Ramirez), leads Noon (Roesha 'Ro' Townsel) and Pan (Carrington Thornton) in a game of charades meets 'Simon Says,' the children's lively antics are underscored by a wariness beyond their years and an ominous sense of danger. So begins Phillip Howze's experimental, often confounding play that draws on theatrical traditions of absurdism, burlesque and commedia dell'arte to satirize a slew of Western interlopers, from humanitarian nonprofits to predatory capitalists. Directed by Kezia Waters, who also designed the set, this Chicago premiere raises provocative questions but ultimately feels hazy in its exploration of anticolonial themes. Win regularly encourages Noon and Pan to practice their English, a language the three kids only have a slight grasp of, so it seems serendipitous when an idealistic young English teacher, Thom (Cameron Austin Brown), shows up one day. After wheedling some cash from him, while Noon rifles through his backpack, Win convinces him to stay and teach some lessons. This well-meaning stranger is the first in a string of intruders who range from the ridiculous to the sinister; Terreon Collins plays a magazine correspondent on a tone-deaf quest for the perfect combat photo, and later, an intoxicated militia fighter. In the role of a comically unhinged doctor from the World Health Organization, Nadia Pillay wields an oversized syringe and scatters a barrage of pharmaceutical samples at the bewildered children. Pillay also performs an exaggerated send-up of a B-list actress in search of a little local flavor and a break from her work as a humanitarian ambassador, while Jo JB Schaffer gives a creepy turn as a developer looking to capitalize on a vulnerable region's resources. In another scene, Pillay and Schaffer team up as a clown and mime duo from a nonprofit called 'Clowns from Across Bounds,' espousing grandiose visions of what performance art can accomplish in this 'savage land' before being shot dead by the drunk soldier. The goofy name of this nonprofit and the title of the play itself both riff on the prominent medical charity Doctors Without Borders, or Médecins Sans Frontières, as it's known internationally. Through this bizarre mix of visitors, who all speak English and are more economically secure than the children, Howze paints the Anglosphere's interference in global affairs with a broad brush, portraying idealistic philanthropists and greedy developers alike as tools of colonialism. While both are fair subjects for criticism, Howze misses an opportunity for sharper, more specific satire by flattening the outsiders into a conglomerate threat. 'Frontieres Sans Frontieres' shares some thematic and tonal similarities with Jackie Sibblies Drury's 'We Are Proud to Present,' the first play Theatre Y produced in its permanent North Lawndale venue in 2023. However, Howze's anticolonial satire is even more stylized and abstract, to the extent that I sometimes lost the thread of what the playwright is trying to say. This was especially true in an extended scene toward the end featuring Noon, who is separated from the other orphans and presumably taken to America. Wearing garish white makeup and a costume inspired by the Statue of Liberty, with eerie lighting from cell phone flashlights, Noon gives a charismatic speech that seems to present her as a model of assimilation. (Nia Vines is the costume designer and Ryan Burkle is the lighting designer.) Win reacts with horror and grief to this development, realizing too late that the children have lost their own identities, languages and cultures. Fans of theater that's a bit outside the box, or refuses to acknowledge a box altogether, will likely find this production worth their time. It also should be right in the wheelhouse of those who enjoy the more avant-garde works of the annual Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival; there's even a scene featuring a puppet (credited as Discopuppet) as a radio host. Waters' imaginative staging and the cast's committed performances bring to life Howze's strange world — which, by the way, is always referred to as 'Here.' Make of that what you will, the playwright seems to say, about the setting and the play as a 'Frontieres Sans Frontieres' (2.5 stars) When: Through Aug. 24 Where: Theatre Y, 3611 W. Cermak Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes Tickets: Free or pay what you want at
