Howdy ya'll..! Two simple questions: 1). Do you consider Insectariums like Montreal Insectarium and the Insectarium in St. Louis to be proper zoological instutitions or Museums..? 2). What zoos have you been to that have excellent Insect Houses or insect exhbits..? IMO: I think Insectariums are Museums which have some live exhibits to raise visitor numbers...
Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo has two tiny yet interesting buildings...one devoted to insects and the other exclusively to spiders. Both places are small, and yet full of cool little creepy crawlies.
1. Zoos 2. I have been to some zoos/museums that had "Insect houses" in the form of butterfly aviaries and a few glass cubes of Madagascar Hissing cockroaches and Walking sticks, but the zoos/institutions I can think of that have a broader collection of arthropods are Stuttgart, Berlin, KSU(Kansas State University) and Cincinnati. I have been to the informal presentation of the new Insectarium in New Orleans which will be pretty large-though I have second doubts about the ratio work-input <-> visitor attraction/animal well-being there. The Beetle Experience- New Orleans Audubon Insectaruim Information There's a link I once received from by a bug-crazy friend of mine (and he's even not a meerkat ): Places to get bug-eyed over insects - USATODAY.com
Private keepers have best invertebrates. I never seen a zoo with e.g. orchid flower mantis or goliath beetle. Papiliorama in Kerzers, Switzerland is very good. Although night hall for South American animals tops butterflies. Stuttgart is also very nice. BTW, pity that few zoos allow children to handle invertebrates. 90% of boys pass thru stage of fascination with bugs, frogs etc., it should be great opportunity to educate. Certainly people like Gerald Durrell grew out of boys fascinated by insects.
Chester has Orchid mantis, and there is a video of it on the gallery under the title realm of the red ape.
@Jurek7: Usually private persons have more and rare arthropods because they're willing to invest more time and money into them than zoos can/are willing to do-as they don't have to build an education system around them. The short life-span of many arthropods, not always easy husbandry/breeding and their often (for the greater part of the zoo audience) not obvious interesting characteristics (which thus require expensive appliances like models, microscopes, computer animations, films etc. to convey them) makes keeping them quite work-intensive and expensive.
I know. Actually, good presentation is rather easy. If you know Emmen Zoo, you know that tons of money and sci-fi science are not needed. Still, I find it sad that most zoos keep only Pachnoda beetles, while there are 100's of bigger, more colorful and extravagant beetles with similar husbandry.
It depends on the zoo audience; the insectarium in New Orleans will be crammed full with electronic gadgets-and I think one of them is going to get them sued...
i cant answer the first question......but i have seen some amazing invertebrate displays in zoos that have held me captivated for hours. london zoos' web of life exhibit is extraordinairy on all fronts....the scale and dramatic architecture, the variety and authenticity of displays and the interps which tie it all in together. truly fascinating. in Victoria Australia both Melbourne Museum and Melbourne Zoo have fascinating invertebrate displays. Melbourne Zoo has its standout butterfly house and associated invertebrate displays. the museum has a whole hall of live insect displays ranging from green tree ants to wasps, tarantulas and water beetles (plus throny devils and black ants for good measure). in Sydney Taronga Zoo has incorporated invert displays into its more recent developments. the leaf mantis, cockroaches and ant displays in Backyard to Bush are particularly good. when it comes to stand-alone invertebrate displays probably only butterflies and spiders could draw people in the opposite direction to say, lions, tigers, monkeys or bears. but when invertebrate enclosures are incorprated into wider maxi displays, as within Trail of the Elephants at Melbourne Zoo, their true and often under appreciated role in functioning ecosystems can be appreciated. its always a good lesson in contrats when one second youre marvelling at the size of Asian Elephants then in the next minute youre marvelling at a tiny butterfly alighting on your arm.
Hey Glyn, thanks for replying... I have seen those displays myself on self-funded trips to Aussie over the last two years, they arroused my interest very much... A Terrarium (for users interest, I'm sure you know) is keeping a "self serving" enviroment in a case, i.e your average reptile exhibit, at your average zoo and a formicarium is a fancy name for an ant farm... I was wondering whether any users had kept either before..? I'm quite interested and looking for advice more than a google search...
One part of the Australian Wildlife World at Darling Habour in Sydney that I was actually quite impressed with was their collection of insects and invertebrates. I'm no expert in this area - but it was great to see a collection of stuff you don't normally see in zoos. I was quite disappointed with the rest of the facility (especially given the cost), but there was at least one part that kept me interested for quite some time during my visit.
Jeremy, I have kept Australian Scorpions, Spiders, Native Millepede (giant) Giant Burrowing Cockroaches, and Giant Land Snails, and do ecosystem marine tanks count, i have seen some that require NO waterchanges
Wow... Thats an impressive list..! I'm considering getting an Eastern Bearded Dragon but just wanna make sure I know what I'm doing first...
- Aquarium Forum New Zealand this is a fish forum but has a reptile section. Lots of knowledgeable people on there and a good choice for info of keeping them in NZ
Thank you, Chlidonias... Just signed up to their forum, I'm doing my homework but have some NZ specific questions...
To enliven the thread: Any chance of giant weta in Europe? Anybody heard of lantern bugs (Fulgoridae) in captivity? Great-looking critters! Anybody heard of more colorful forms of coreid bugs (Coreidae) in captivity? Also great-looking critters!
