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Lizards & Snakes ALIVE! Travelling Museum Exh
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by Cro on February 18, 2007
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I went to the Fernbank Museum of Natural History today with some friends. We went to see the travelling exhibit called Lizards & Snakes ALIVE! which was designed by the American Museum of Natural History.
It will stay at Fernbank through August, and then move to another city.
Is is worth seeing? Well, that depends. Fernbank Museum is expensive to get into. And the parking sucks.
The exhibit is allright, but needs some improvement.
If you have a bunch of rug-rats, it would be fun for them. 80% of the folks there were less than 10 years old. Sure wish some of them had taken ther ridilin before attneding, as some were running around and hooting and hollering. Bad parenting mostly.
The animals in the exhibits for the most part are ok, but not all that exciting. Stuff everyone here has seen about a million times at reptile shows. However, the actual exhibit cages themselves are quite impressive. They all have great rock work, and live plants, and many have running water and good lighting.
The backgrounds are not all that well done, but the rock cliffs and ledges and fake trees make up for that.
Fernbank is well known as a half-ass museum, as are most of the things in Atlanta, like the aquarium, or our sports teams, or our zoo, or our highways, etc.
So this exhibit meets the half-ass expectations. There are a lot of lizard exhibits, and some cool geckos, and even two heladerma on display.
As far as snakes, it is not all that impressive. There are a couple of Emerald Tree Boas, and a big burmese python, and a red spitting cobra and a couple of other cages. Those house what was probably the best snake exhibit, which had a huge, gravid female Gaboon on the floor of the exhibit, and she was clearly under stress, as she had NO hiding at all, just a plain sand floor. She was deeply breathing everyting anyone came close to the exhibit. Not a good situation for a gravid female Gaboon to be placed in. Above her in the branches of the same exhibit was a large Green Mamba.
The Mamba was laid back and overfed to the point of being lethargic, which works I guess in an exhibit where thousands of folks parade right up against the glass all day.
There were several wrong or mis-spelled scientific names on the exhibits, and other problems as well. One of the major problems was the names of the animals was way up on top where the kids could not see it. And at the bottom was confusing information for the kids who could read. For instance, on the Red Spitter cage, down where the kids could read, was stuff about Egyptian Cobras and Indian Cobras. And 8 feet in the air was a thing saying the Cobra in the cage was a spitter. Most kids would have never seen it.
I observed one kid ask his brother while pointing at the Gaboon, "what kind of snake is that?" and his brother looked up and read the sign that said "Green Mamba" and said that the Gaboon was a Green Mamba.
Then there was the live talk about reptiles. I learned from the little black girl giving the show and holding a corn snake that "Snakes do not have noses," instead they have a tongue that is used for smell and taste. and I learned from her that the fork on a snakes tongue tells it which way to go, either right, or left, or straight, depending where scent is coming from, LOL !
I guess I should have not expected more from what is supposed to be the premier Natural History Museum in the SE United States. But I do expect more. Except for the full size dinosaur skelitins in the middle exhibit hall, the museum pretty much sucks. If you have rug-rats or visiting relatives to intertain, it might be worth taking them to see it. Or if you are looking for ideas of how to build cool cage backgrounds, it is worth seeing. If you are looking for cool animals, or factual information, then it is not worth visiting.
I would expect this from Fernbank. I would not have expected this from an exhibit by the American Museum of Natural History, though.
Anyway, just my impressin of the Lizard & Snakes ALIVE exhibit.
Best Regards JohnZ
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RE: Lizards & Snakes ALIVE! Travelling Museum
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by vanerka on February 19, 2007
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That is rather suprising for a museum. and it is sort of confusing for small children and others who want to learn about these animals when they arnt shure which animal is which. A picture of the animal next to the name tags would help. As far as for the improper spelling of the scientific names, well, sounds like some people need to do some soul searching at the exhibit.
Thanks Eric.
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RE: Lizards & Snakes ALIVE! Travelling Museum
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by Cro on February 19, 2007
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I think the folks who first designed the show probably had good intentions. However, they are certanaly not staying in Atlanta with it for several months. They have trained some folks here to maintain it, and who ever they chose are not very good reptile keepers.
It is clear they hired some kind of media center to create the information that was put on the front of the cages, as each blurb is signed by someone. It looks like hundreds of folks did the "research" and that a lot of it was from Google.
What really sickens me is that huge gravid Gaboon Viper sitting 2 inches from the glass, and she is deep breathing and heaving everytime someone passes the exhibit. She has absolutely NO cover! A half bushell of leaves would do wonders to help her feel more hidden. Actually, she should not be on exhibit at all, in her condition. I am going to attempt to find the "nitwhits in charge" and try to tell them what they are doing wrong. I really do not think they give a SH** about the welefare of the animals though. It is a big money thing. I will however try.
Best Regards JohnZ
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RE: Lizards & Snakes ALIVE! Travelling Museum
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by LarryDFishel on February 20, 2007
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Hmmm... Snakes certainly have nostrils, but I guess it could be a matter of opinion whether they have noses...
I was under the impression that she is correct about the tounge (even if it's a bit simplified). I always assumed and have heard/read from various sources that the bifurcated tongue gave snakes a degree of "stereo" scent perception that halped them tell which direction a scent was coming from. I haven't read any research that "proves" it though.
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RE: Lizards & Snakes ALIVE! Travelling Museum
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by Cro on February 21, 2007
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Larry, you are right about the bifurcated tongue acting like a kind of sterio. However, the way this girl presented this, she was saying that this is the ONLY thing a snake uses to navigate. She made it sound like the nostrils and eyes play no part at all. It was clear that someone had instructed her in how to give her snake show, and that she had "modified" it a bit with some of her own intrepretations, LOL !
If it worked the way she presented it, then we could cutt off one side of the tongue fork on a snake, and that poor old snake would spend the rest of its life going around and around in circles, LOL !
I am probably being a bit picky, because she was trying to educate kids, which is a very good thing.
Overall, the exhibit does a fairly good job of educating kids, and is certainly entertaining them.
Best Regards JohnZ
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RE: Lizards & Snakes ALIVE! Travelling Museum
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by Cro on February 21, 2007
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Does anyone here have the EMail address of Dr. Darrel Frost, Curator, Department of Herpetology, American Museum of Natural History? He is supposed to be the one in charge of the Lizards & Snakes Alive! exhibit.
I would like to contact him concerning the poor and stressful conditions they are providing that gravid female Gaboon Viper in the exhibit at Fernbank Museum.
I am sure he is sitting in some fancy office, and probably could care less, but I want to try to tell him that whoever he left maintaining the exhibit while it is here at Fernbank, is not doing their job very well. He is a Museum person, and a lizard specialist, so I really dont expect much from him in caring about the welefare of animals that are on display. Most of the museum herpetologist I have met over the years are more concerned with pickled animals than live ones.
But, I wish to try to contact him.
Best Regards JohnZ
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Squamates !
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by Cro on February 22, 2007
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More criticism on the Lizards & Snakes ALIVE ! Travelling Museum Exhibit.
Squamates!
Most folks here know the term means Scaled Reptiles, and includes amphisbaenians, lizards, and snakes.
There are two "educational" films that play at the show throughout the day. And both of these films have "Squamates" in the title, and throughout the film. Not Lizards and Snakes.
And both of the films do not explain to the kids watching them, that Squamates are Lizards and Snakes.
The films say Squamate this, and Squamate that, but never defign the term. And they totally leave out the Amphisbaenians!
This type of oversite is typical for Museum "herpers."
They use a term that is way over the heads of the kids watching the films, and do not bother to define the term in the films.
If they are going to introduce a term like "Squamata" to the general public, especially young kids, they should go to the trouble to tell the kids what it means.
Best Regards JohnZ
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