World of the Insect, or the Insectarium, was the first and largest building in the world with the widest collection of six-legged species after opening in 1978. The zoo has received four AZA awards for this achievement, which also includes breeding of many rare species like the Hercules beetle, the Royal Goliath beetle, the Giant Southeast Asian Walking Stickand the Harlequin beetle. Not only does the building showcase invertebrates but it also is home to small animals that prey on them in the "What Eats Insects" area along with a burrow exhibit for naked mole rats. There is a long line of plastic tubes that travel throughout half the building, containing millions of leaf-cutter ants in the longest ant exhibit in the country. Connected to the building is a separate walk-through atrium called the Butterfly Rainforest showcasing hundreds of small birds and butterflies native to South America. Over seventy species are on display, but the building actually holds over 500,000 total animals. Currently the building holds baby walking sticks, whipscorpions, emperor scorpions, hissing cockroaches, leaf katydids, and spiny leaf insects.
Connected to the building is a separate walk-through atrium called the Butterfly Rainforest showcasing hundreds of small birds and butterflies native to South America. Over seventy species are on display, but the building actually holds over 500,000 total animals.
Are you saying that the small butterfly room holds "hundreds of small birds and butterflies"? Has this exhibit been expanded in the past 20 years? I remember it very well but it was very small
Are you saying that the small butterfly room holds "hundreds of small birds and butterflies"? Has this exhibit been expanded in the past 20 years? I remember it very well but it was very small
No it's pretty long but has a low ceiling. I would say it holds 13 birds and maybe 50 passion butterflies. Wasn't this building built before Insect World opened in 1978?
No it's pretty long but has a low ceiling. I would say it holds 13 birds and maybe 50 passion butterflies. Wasn't this building built before Insect World opened in 1978?
63 equals "hundreds"? And, on the subject of pedantry, are you saying in the following quote that the insect house at Cincinnati was the first in the world? Because London Zoo for one beat it by almost a hundred years.....
Moebelle said:
World of the Insect, or the Insectarium, was the first and largest building in the world with the widest collection of six-legged species after opening in 1978.
63 equals "hundreds"? And, on the subject of pedantry, are you saying in the following quote that the insect house at Cincinnati was the first in the world? Because London Zoo for one beat it by almost a hundred years.....
No its called emphasis, especially since I don't know the real number, and its not like I'm going to put 50 butterflies and 15 birds. It doesn't sound right. And no I believe the first in North America.
No its called emphasis, especially since I don't know the real number, and its not like I'm going to put 50 butterflies and 15 birds. It doesn't sound right. And no I believe the first in North America.
Inventing numbers is a poor way to achieve emphasis. A casual reader might assume your statements have some real meaning and offer real information. And for the more informed, it becomes difficult to distinguish such "emphasis" from an outright lie. You can do better at making your point than to make up figures.
here's a very interesting list of insect displays with their dates of opening, and below the tables is an even more interesting discussion on the history of "insect zoos": Insect Zoos (Insects)
Dave Ehrlinger's book on the history of the Cincinnati Zoo pronounces Cincinnati "first zoo to open a major exhibit building devoted to insects."
The "Insect Zoos" website doesn't really disagree.
It also set a new standard for monetary commitment to insect exhibits, with a price tag of $1 million, including the cost of the new stand-alone building
But it does seem to be parsing the facts a bit when there was already a substantial history of insect exhibits at other zoos in the U.S. (how "major" is "major"?)
