Insect zoos
October 28th, 2008 by Wendy Pollock
ExhibitFiles member Beth-Redmond Jones is looking for good examples of insect zoos (and also life science/ecology halls). Does anyone have a review to contribute?
(The photo, right, was taken by Christine Ruffo of ASTC during the ASTC Annual Conference in Philadelphia two weeks ago. It’s in the Academy of Natural Sciences Butterflies! exhibition.)
November 7th, 2008 at 3:46 am
The most well known zoo with a special part for insects (butterflys) is the Noorder Dierentuin in Emmen. Other interesting zoos are Burgers Dierenpark in Arnhem, Blijdorp in Rotterdam and Artis in Amsterdam. There is a huge natural history museum in Leiden, called Naturalis, but only with (I hope) dead insects.
You could find all of these zoos with Google.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:16 am
How about the Audubon Insectarium in New Orleans? I haven’t been there but saw plans for its development (now open, I’m sure) and it looked fabulous on paper.
November 14th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Beth, my favorite insect zoo is the Montreal Insectarium, at the Biodome. Jim Peterson was impressed with it, too. A labor of love on the part of its founder, Georges Brossard, whose enthusiastic, wild-about-bugs, spread-the-word personality is reflected in every display.
http://www2.ville.montreal.qc.ca/insectarium/en/index.php?section=1&intParent=1
Most insect zoos and modest and you can’t really get the feeling for them on the website. I thought it was worth the trip up there. Let me know what you think! xox Judy
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Smithsonian Institution Museum of Natural History (Wasington, D.C.) has the insect zoo in a corner of the building that is named for Orkin.
Check out: http://www.mnh.si.edu/insect/
and/or
http://www.mnh.si.edu/education/fieldtrip/planned_programs/insect_zoo/
I found some dead links just today that I hope to find out what the problem is on Monday.
New(ish) is the live butterfly exhibit in the same museum.
January 13th, 2009 at 12:29 am
Beth,
In the Denver, CO area, we have the Butterfly Pavilion and Insect Center. It’s small, but nicely done and very popular. Check it out at http://www.butterflies.org/
Best,
Christine
March 23rd, 2009 at 5:05 am
Thank you all for your input! If there are other members out there with more examples, please let me know. thanks! Beth
June 17th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
The Cockrell Butterfly Center in Houston, TX makes learning about insect’s fun through games and questions related to the preserved and living specimens. It is a three-story glass building and inside is a waterfall and rainforest filled with plants and hundreds of living butterflies. Downstairs from the rainforest is an insect area, where you learn about topics like butterfly gardening, and argh eating insects!