Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum News

According to an email blast, they have received a pair of orphaned mule deer fawns. Email says to watch for announcement when they will be on display, but does not say where they will be displayed. I assume it will be the current white tailed deer exhibit.

Edit - I just checked their FB page and it says they are acclimating by being on exhibit for an hour each day and it will be announced when they are permanently on exhibit. The photos do indeed look as if they are in the white tailed deer exhibit.
 
Arizona Docent said:
USA Today is taking votes for top Arizona attraction (same format as their recent top zoos of America poll which I think ASDM took third?). Desert Museum is the only zoological attraction on the list.
Vote- Best Arizona Attraction Nominees: 2017 10Best Readers' Choice Travel Awards
Click to expand...
Makes you wonder about these awards doesnt it? No harm done for sure, but the fact remains that year in,year out ,Reid Park Zoo in Tucson gets significantly more visitors than the ASDM...
 
Tim Brown said:
Makes you wonder about these awards doesnt it? No harm done for sure, but the fact remains that year in,year out ,Reid Park Zoo in Tucson gets significantly more visitors than the ASDM...
Click to expand...

How many of those visitors are tourists? Reid Park looks like a neat little zoo, but there is nothing there which would make me, go out of my way to see it. ASDM, though, is a very different and unique experience that would attract interstate and international visitors.
 
That may be true...but its not the point im making.Personally i would go a LONG way to visit virtually any zoo i have not been to anyway.Im hardly typical however, having been to Arizona 5 times to look at zoos, ive only been to one other of the "Best Arizona Attraction"nominees!(the Grand Canyon -okay if you like that kind of thing i suppose......only joking!).
 
Tim Brown said:
That may be true...but its not the point im making.Personally i would go a LONG way to visit virtually any zoo i have not been to anyway.Im hardly typical however, having been to Arizona 5 times to look at zoos, ive only been to one other of the "Best Arizona Attraction"nominees!(the Grand Canyon -okay if you like that kind of thing i suppose......only joking!).
Click to expand...

But of course the subject of the article is "Tourist Attractions", not "Zoochatter Attractions". Reid Park Zoo is just not on the tourism horizon. Actually I think it a real positive that ASDM is on the list, too often in my experience people in tourism and the media tend to devalue and ignore animal attractions.
 
Last edited:
A couple minor updates from a quick lunch visit today (August 28, 2017).

Art Institute is constructing a second classroom building behind the first one (looked to be about halfway complete). The Museum has a very extensive Art Institute that offers classes in a variety of mediums (sketching, photography, etc). They also host a public art gallery in a nearby building, for which...

Art Gallery is temporarily closed for what appears to be the installation of new front doors and windows. It will be done soon, as the opening reception for their next exhibition is September 16, 2017. That exhibition, which runs through the end of the year, is Puma: Past and Present. It features 40 representations of the puma in two dimensional media (photography, oil painting, etc). The show was open for all members to enter and the selection is a result of judging well over one hundred submissions. (And yes, Yours Truly will have two images in the exhibition).
 
Arizona Docent said:
A couple minor updates from a quick lunch visit today (August 28, 2017).

Art Gallery is temporarily closed for what appears to be the installation of new front doors and windows. It will be done soon, as the opening reception for their next exhibition is September 16, 2017. That exhibition, which runs through the end of the year, is Puma: Past and Present. It features 40 representations of the puma in two dimensional media (photography, oil painting, etc). The show was open for all members to enter and the selection is a result of judging well over one hundred submissions. (And yes, Yours Truly will have two images in the exhibition).
Click to expand...

What is going on with the jaguar-crocodile complex? Is it on indefinite hold?
 
Tim Brown said:
That may be true...but its not the point im making.Personally i would go a LONG way to visit virtually any zoo i have not been to anyway.Im hardly typical however, having been to Arizona 5 times to look at zoos, ive only been to one other of the "Best Arizona Attraction"nominees!(the Grand Canyon -okay if you like that kind of thing i suppose......only joking!).
Click to expand...

What is the point that you are making? That you don't think the ASDM is a unique attraction?
 
DavidBrown said:
What is going on with the jaguar-crocodile complex? Is it on indefinite hold?
Click to expand...
Yes - indefinite hold. The only announced upcoming exhibit (Spring 2018) will be a building dedicated to packrats, which is a bold move IMO (dedicating an entire building to a single species of rodent).
 
This is interesting - I thought it was going to feature live animals. On a visit perhaps a year ago I saw a docent with a packrat in terrarium doing interpretation, so I know they have them. However the Desert Museum has always lacked the kind of children's play areas you see at most zoos, so perhaps this is a move in that direction, just like the touch tank mentioned above.
 
The unique raptor free flight show, which only runs in the cooler half of the year, will begin its season in one week (October 21, 2017). The museum has announced on Facebook that a caracara will be added to the lineup for the first time in the program's history.
 
When I visited last week, I noticed the touch tank has been removed from the aquarium. Also the gift shop has been rearranged so that upscale items like Indian jewelry and minerals are more prominent. (They still have a good book selection, but it is now at the opposite end of the upper level gift shop). I am not sure where the new packrat exhibit will go as I did not see any signs of construction.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top