Vivarium Construction Question

[abccdr]

I am involved in the deign of a Vivarium in a research buildng that is part of a larger medical campus. My area of expertise is in fire detection/building life safety and fire protection. One ofthe questions raised during a design peer review was consideration of the impact on the animals by visual warning devices (strobes). These are relatively high intensity devices rangng in Candela output of 15 - 110cd and flashing at a rate of approximately 1 Hertz. Multiple strobes in an area are synchronized to flash at the same time. The fire alarm strobe is a clear xenon type lens and when there is a non-fire emergency warning for mass notification/severe weather/security emergency, etc..., there is a corresponding amber lens device that flashes instead as an Alerting device.

Does anyone have any experience with this area of concern? What impact can this have on the animals. Is the intesity of light the issue or is the flash rate or are both relavant? What other questions should I be asking and or considering?

Thank you for yor responses!

[B Jet]

wow, not an easy question, but i'll share with you some of my observations.

In general, my herps pay little attention to artificial light. My viv is in front of the window, and i try to keep the light's timer close to current sunset/sunrise times. Regardless of how far off it is, they choose to become active/go to sleep based on the window light, even though it is much less intense than the artificial. However, my nocturnal animals tend to hide if the room is brightly lit up at night.

Also, they react to colored light differently than white light. I have a infrared bulb that puts out a decent amount of visible red light as well, for heat and viewing at night. The nocturnal guys act normally in the red light, and treat it as darkness, even while their pupils are half-constricted. I would imagine that a red/amber light would not be much of a problem.

Animals in general are very good at adapting to regular stressors in their environment. tho bright lights at night and constant loud noise might be an exception to this-you would not like the light on or people talking while you are trying to sleep either.

Hopefully, the building doesn't catch on fire. If it does, i think the warning lights would be the least of the problem. I don't think it should be an issue, but i don't know if any common animals suffer from epileptic seizures either :P

hope this helps, wish i had fun projects like this at my work...