Auckland Zoo’s dinosaur lights show captivates visitors at night

Auckland Zoo is offering a night-time light and sound experience on its popular Dinosaur Discovery Trail. Photo / Alex Robertson

Kevin Buley, the director of Auckland Zoo and a self-confessed dinosaur nut, is just a little bit excited about his latest attraction.

“It’s dinosaur nights and lights. We’re in a place that is simultaneously incredibly exciting, a lot mysterious and quite a bit spooky,” he said.

The Dinosaur Discovery Track has been a roaring success since opening just over two months ago, with visitor numbers for April and May breaking all attendance records in the zoo’s 100-year history.

As part of the normal admission price, guests can get up close and learn about these amazing beasts that once ruled the world.

And now, for the next month, it’s opening at night too.

“What you get is the zoo at night,” Buley said. “It’s not often that visitors can experience the zoo in the dark and it’s pretty spectacular.

“Everything takes on a different atmosphere ... it’s a little bit disconcerting, actually.”

The dinosaurs are animatronic life-size, uber-realistic models that move, roar and even spit, bringing a whole new meaning to the word petrified.

“The eyes follow you around,” Buley said. “I swear, in this light, they’re actually looking at you!”

With the zoo in complete darkness, a service path is illuminated to guide visitors the “back way” to an entranceway straight out of Jurassic Park.

Clouds of mist glow with the ever-changing lights and the sounds of screeches, howls and roars emanate from within the old elephant enclosure.

“The primeval mist that we’ve got, the roaring, the movement under the lights, the way the reflections in their teeth work it’s properly, properly cool,” Buley said.

There is a serious motive behind the exhibition, though.

Buley said we can still learn a lot from these animals despite the fact they have been extinct for millions of years.

“One of the real fascinations for me about dinosaurs is that we are still learning so much about them.

“The last ones went extinct about 65 million years ago but palaeontologists, scientists are still uncovering secrets about how they lived, how they looked, how they behaved.”

He says these discoveries have enormous relevance to the issues facing wildlife today.

“What we’re facing today with our biodiversity crisis is the world’s sixth mass extinction [and it’s] entirely caused by human beings – whether it’s the climate crisis, whether it’s the loss of habitat, whether it’s species being captured and consumed as part of the bush meat trade, whether it’s our burgeoning population as a species, wildlife is under threat in a way that it hasn’t faced since the extinction of the dinosaurs.

“What we can learn from them that is yes we’re the problem but we’re also the only answer to the extinction crisis today. We’ve got to do our bit to help turn things around.”

Buey is passionate about wildlife, as you’d expect from the director of a zoo, but he’s also passionate about dinosaurs, referring to them as a “gateway drug” to his lifelong commitment to animals.

But does he have a favourite?

“That’s a bit like asking what’s your favourite child?” he retorts.

“I don’t have a favourite dinosaur. I love ’em all.”

Dinosaur Nights and Lights is open at the Auckland Zoo until July 13, 5pm-8.30pm. Prebook tickets at www.aucklandzoo.co.nz

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