Animal exhibits in airports

DavidBrown

DavidBrown

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
With the holiday travel season upon us it got me thinking about airports and that this would be a great place for animal and wildlife conservation exhibits because there are a bunch of bored, captive people that need something to do.

I read somewhere that the Vancouver airport has an aquarium portraying the local ocean life and a Google search popped back some pictures of it (Panoramio - Photo of Great Aquarium, YVR Vancouver airport). Has anybody here actually experienced it?

The San Francisco airport has a small aquarium area that is maintained by the California Academy of Sciences (SFO - San Francisco International Airport - Museum - Aquarium). I have not seen it for several years, but it definitely was a nice thing to see at an airport.

Are there any other aquariums or zoo exhibits that people have experienced in the airports of the world? The children's hospital in Australia with the meerkats makes me think that terrestrial animal exhibits might work in an airport too, but I've never heard of any.

A cursory search for other airport aquarium exhibits reveals that the Tampa Airport had a saltwater aquarium until a woman lost control of her pickup truck and crashed through it (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,573669,00.html).
 
Singapore has/had a butterfly house in their airport. I would imagine aquarium displays would be reasonably common.
 
DavidBrown said:
It looks like the butterfly house is still there and now is part of a whole "nature trail" through the airport terminals (Nature Trail - Changi Airport). Very cool.
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Its a permanent butterfly house, well-maintained and well-stocked. The rest of the nature trail are various themed gardens including koi ponds, a succulent garden and a fern garden with giant Tasmanian tree ferns.

Some years back it seemed that Changi Airport was even toying with the idea of having a marmoset exhibit. It likely, and understandably, settled for the butterfly house instead.
 
I haven't seen any in person myself but I would think that aquariums would be pretty common. Reptile and insect exhibits could work equally well, but generally I would stay away from housing birds and mammals in a setting like that, unless it was somewhat out of the way of the main airport areas.
 
DavidBrown said:
@snowleopard: this aquarium/exhibit complex looks interesting. Have you seen it? Do you know if the Vancouver Aquarium maintains it?
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I have seen it and the setup is very impressive. Vancouver Aquarium staff maintain the tanks, and there is a 114,000 liter (30 gallon) tank displaying around 850 local sea creatures and a 3,800 liter (0.8 gallon) tank featuring over 100 moon jellyfish.

The link below has 4 photos of the large tank that accurately illustrate the size and scope of the exhibit. There is also a really cool indoor stream shown in two photos, although there are no animals in it.

Grand vision becomes magnificent reality at Vancouver International Airport - 29/06/07 | TheMoodieReport.com
 
114,000 litres is only 30 gallons? I didn't realise a gallon was so large!

:p

Hix
 
No exhibits, but the Nashville Zoo maintains a childrens gift shop in the Nashville Airport.

The aforementioned airport in Singapore, by the way, is the best in the world according to a recent travel article I read online.
 
I think its Anchorage that has (or maybe had) the world record polar bear on display
 
The Kuching International Airport has a small saltwater fish tank containing some miscellaneous damselflish, a panther grouper, a triggerfish, a blue tang, and a tomato clownfish.
 
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