Universeum - Water´s Way

Universeum in Göteborg (Gothenburg) is a ”National Science Centre” in Sweden, with exhibitions on physics, chemistry, space etc. But it also has a lot of nice zoological exhibits! It is a very exciting house, built on the slopes of a mountain and designed by the most well-known contemporary Swedish architect Gert Wingårdh.

Water´s Way is one of the fabulous exhibitions in the house. Situated on the top floor it shows all sorts of water habitats in Sweden. You get to see fish, snakes and frogs and even a bird. (The latter is the only feature I do not like, the wing-clipped bird is kept in one of the fish tanks).

August 2009

Dan said:

You get to see fish, snakes and frogs and even a bird. (The latter is the only feature I do not like, the wing-clipped bird is kept in one of the fish tanks).

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Actually, there are several bird species living in the hall. The wing-clipped one that you refer to is the great crested crebe in this picture. It is an orphan from the wild that came to the Universeum after being injured and rescued. So don't feel bad for it! It has a very nice pool for swimming and crested crebes never fly that much anyway.

Grebes are not easy to keep in captivity - I remember reading years ago that little grebes would only eat live fishes.

Alan

Toddy said:

Actually, there are several bird species living in the hall. The wing-clipped one that you refer to is the great crested crebe in this picture. It is an orphan from the wild that came to the Universeum after being injured and rescued. So don't feel bad for it! It has a very nice pool for swimming and crested crebes never fly that much anyway.

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Hmmm... I am not totally convinced. The bird has an area of maybe 12-14 sq meters, water and land surface combined. Lots of noisy kids passing by all day.

I didn´t notice any other birds in the Water´s Way exibition, though. Are there more than this one?

@gentle lemur: I would believe that. It was never the plan to keep them in the Universeum, but then this little guy turned up. The only other place I have seen great crested grebes in captivity is in the AQUA Freshwater Aquarium in Denmark, where another orphan is kept.

@Dan: It is a fine environment for a single grebe. It has a very deep pool for diving and grebes spend almost all their time in water. Also, since this grebe is raised by humans it is quite used to being near the visitors.

And there are several different species of birds from the woodlands native to Sweden. You just have to be patient and look for them, but in most cases you can hear chirping