Creatures of the night inhabit Audubon Zoo's newest building

It's daylight outside, but with indoor lights simulating a full moon, hundreds of bats flap back and forth. On a nearby wall, what appears to be a talking stone face provides bat fun facts.

It's the night house at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, and it opens Friday. The Associated Press got a preview Tuesday.

The centerpiece of the $1.6 million night house is the 42-foot-long (13-meter-long) flight cage for 200 Seba's short-tailed bats — fruit-eating mammals up to 2½ inches (6.4 centimeters) long, with a foot-wide (30 centimeter) wingspan.

In this Tuesday, March 20, 2018 photo, a Vampire Bat drinks bovine blood in the Criaturas de la Noche (Creatures of the Night) Bat House, the Audubon Zoo's new night house in New Orleans. The various species are all from Central and South America, and the building's interior simulates an abandoned warehouse set up to protect Mayan artifacts during a dig. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

"It's amazing going in there and having the bats fly by you," animal care staffer Dominique Fleitas said Tuesday. "You can feel the wind as their wings are flapping around you."

She said their echolocation — the ability to use sound to locate objects — is so precise that they easily go around her.

The animals in the Criaturas de la Noche (Creatures of the Night) Bat House all are from Central and South America. The building's interior simulates an abandoned warehouse set up to protect Mayan artifacts during a dig. One wall is painted with maps of the supposed site and its general area. Tiles, plates and other "artifacts" hang on other walls or sit on shelves.

Near one end of the flight cage is a giant simulated carving of a man with loudspeakers for earrings, topped by a movie projection of a speaking, sculpted face.

In this March 20, 2018 photo, a Ring-Tailed Cat is seen inside the Criaturas de la Noche (Creatures of the Night) Bat House, the Audubon Zoo's new night house in New Orleans. The various species are all from Central and South America, and the building's interior simulates an abandoned warehouse set up to protect Mayan artifacts during a dig. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

"Push my buttons. I dare you," it says at intervals. "I'd do it myself but I have no arms. I'm just a giant button-head."

Pressing the buttons elicits messages such as "Some bats live by themselves, while others live in caves with thousands of other bats. The largest bat colony in the world is found in Texas, at the Bracken Cave."

A much smaller colony — eight vampire bats — lives in one of a half-dozen exhibit cases set up as if a visitor were looking through a broken wall into the jungle. Their home is made to imitate a tropical ceiba-tree's buttress-like roots with cup-like green lichen growing from it. During the preview, a half-dozen bats hung together from one such cup, forming a clump that could fit easily into one hand, while a seventh lapped cow's blood from a small bowl on the ground.

In this March 20, 2018, photo, Seba's Short-Tailed Bats flies around a lantern in the Criaturas de la Noche (Creatures of the Night) Bat House, the Audubon Zoo's new night house in New Orlean. The various species are all from Central and South America, and the building's interior simulates an abandoned warehouse set up to protect Mayan artifacts during a dig. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Other cases hold giant cave cockroaches, reddish poison dart frogs with creamy white stripes, two kinds of tarantulas and thumb-sized green tree frogs. At each end are two more elaborate displays, one for the Nancy Ma's night owl monkeys, or douroucoulis, and the other for a ring-tailed cat — actually related to raccoons.

The roaches' home is made to imitate a huge football-shaped termite mound formed around several branches and later slashed open by an anteater. A half-dozen 3-inch-long (7.5-centimeter) cockroaches were aligned along one branch, just hanging out.

"They're creepy. Super creepy," said Ashley McClaran, vice president for construction and exhibits. "They hiss at you and they're giant. My son is going to love them. He's 7."

The ring-tailed cat and douroucoulis were wary of the strangers tromping near the quarters they'd just moved into.

Ignoring a slanted climbing wall designed to look like part of an intricately carved Mayan ball court, the ring-tailed cat occasionally left the shelter of a crate at one side.

In this March 20, 2018 photo, Costa Rican Zebra Tarantula crawls inside the Criaturas de la Noche (Creatures of the Night) Bat House, the Audubon Zoo's new night house in New Orleans. The various species are all from Central and South America, and the building's interior simulates an abandoned warehouse set up to protect Mayan artifacts during a dig. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

The arboreal douroucoulis' exhibit, created to look as if thick ropes were being used to haul up an intricately decorated 2-foot-wide (0.6-meter-wide) pottery circle, has lots of places for above-ground clambering. But the monkeys were sitting on a shelf at the exhibit's top left corner and could barely be seen.

"We're going to move that little shelf today," to a much lower spot below the entrance to their sleeping quarters, on the other side of the enclosure, McClaran said. "It will give them an easy way to get into the back-of-house, and a platform to see them."

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A beloved giraffe at a zoo in South Dakota has died.

On Thursday, the Great Plains Zoo and Butterfly House & Aquarium in Sioux Falls announced the death of Chioke, an 18-year-old reticulated giraffe. He died March 28.

“Following a severe fracture in his front left foot, Animal Care and Veterinary leaders made the difficult, but responsible, decision to humanely euthanize him,” the zoo said in a news release.

Chioke, born in Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida, came to the zoo in 2007. He grew to nearly 15 feet tall and sired three offspring, who went on to other zoos. The Great Plains Zoo remembered him for his playfulness.

He had recurring hoof and foot issues in his later years, including two fractures to the tip of his toe bone and resulting arthritis, the zoo said. He suffered a more serious fracture in March.

The zoo consulted nationwide for a treatment plan and used several methods, including drugs, rest and laser therapy, but ultimately decided to euthanize Chioke “due to quality-of-life concerns" after his team had ruled out immobilizing him for surgery or an orthopedic device, and X-rays showed the fracture had worsened.

Zoo staff visited the giraffe to say goodbye, feeding him apple biscuits, a favorite of his.

“We remember Chioke as a gentle, curious, mischievous giraffe who was always up for feedings and interacting with his keepers and guests,” the zoo said. “'Chioke' means ‘gift from God,’ and he certainly was."

This image provided by the Great Plains Zoo shows Chioke relaxing in an enclosure at the zoo in Sioux Falls, S.D., in May 2023. The beloved 18-year-old reticulated giraffe died, March 28, 2024, the zoo announced Thursday, April 4, 2024. Chioke, born in Busch Gardens in Tampa, Fla., came to the zoo in 2007. He grew to nearly 15 feet tall and sired three offspring, who went on to other zoos. (Great Plains Zoo via AP)

This image provided by the Great Plains Zoo shows Chioke plays with his ball in an enclosure at the zoo in Sioux Falls, S.D. , in July, 2021. The beloved 18-year-old reticulated giraffe died, March 28, 2024, the zoo announced Thursday, April 4, 2024. Chioke, born in Busch Gardens in Tampa, Fla., came to the zoo in 2007. He grew to nearly 15 feet tall and sired three offspring, who went on to other zoos. (Great Plains Zoo via AP)

This image provided by the Great Plains Zoo shows Chioke in an enclosure at the zoo in Sioux Falls, S.D., in March 2024. The beloved 18-year-old reticulated giraffe died, March 28, 2024, the zoo announced Thursday, April 4, 2024. Chioke, born in Busch Gardens in Tampa, Fla., came to the zoo in 2007. He grew to nearly 15 feet tall and sired three offspring, who went on to other zoos. (Great Plains Zoo via AP)