Shedd Aquarium Shedd Aquarium

My personal guess is that Shedd will try to keep, if not expand on their old freshwater collection. When I visited, the collection was stunning, but many of the fish were unfortunately old, or the last of their schools. This is a great opportunity to not only replenish the species held, but to get new ones. I am cautiously optimistic.
 
Members can now vote for the beluga calf's name: Leucas, Opus, Campbell, or Kincaid (I went with Opus!).

The email and form mention that the calf is now occasionally on exhibit, and that Beethoven is his father.
 
I am curious about the Beluga whales at the Shedd. Back in the 1990s I was a volunteer at Pt Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma WA. and worked with some of the belugas. Before Shedd could take belugas we housed a few belugas for the Shedd. I understand that eventually the belugas that were part of the collection at Pt Defiance were moved to the Shedd in the early 2000s and I am wondering if any of those moved are still at the Shedd and what the status of the Belugas are at Shedd.
 
MKEbonoboluv said:
I am curious about the Beluga whales at the Shedd. Back in the 1990s I was a volunteer at Pt Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma WA. and worked with some of the belugas. Before Shedd could take belugas we housed a few belugas for the Shedd. I understand that eventually the belugas that were part of the collection at Pt Defiance were moved to the Shedd in the early 2000s and I am wondering if any of those moved are still at the Shedd and what the status of the Belugas are at Shedd.
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Naya moved from Pt. Defiance to Shedd in 1999, and she still lives there today. Beethoven moved from Pt. Defiance to SeaWorld San Antonio in 2009, but now lives at Shedd since 2014. These are the only surviving of Pt. Defiance's belugas.

Ceta Base has an inventory of Shedd's belugas: Shedd Aquarium • Belugas (Current Holder) - Ceta-Base | Captive Dolphin & Whale Database

With a couple of side notes not included there: Atlas' father is Aurek, and Naya's calf was sired by Beethoven :)
 
zoologicus said:
Naya moved from Pt. Defiance to Shedd in 1999, and she still lives there today. Beethoven moved from Pt. Defiance to SeaWorld San Antonio in 2009, but now lives at Shedd since 2014. These are the only surviving of Pt. Defiance's belugas.

Ceta Base has an inventory of Shedd's belugas: Shedd Aquarium • Belugas (Current Holder) - Ceta-Base | Captive Dolphin & Whale Database

With a couple of side notes not included there: Atlas' father is Aurek, and Naya's calf was sired by Beethoven :)
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Thank you for the info. I live in Milwaukee now so I need to make a road trip to Shedd in the coming months. I love the Lincoln Park Zoo and also enjoy the
Brookfield Zoo but I haven't been to Shedd yet.
 
Shedd has an updated map/guidebook for visitors. Interestingly it does show the layout of the new Oceans gallery that is being added, despite work having just begun on it. Its nothing major but it is cool to see how this exhibit will maximize this space and feature a variety of smaller tanks that have not yet been confirmed.
 
Just visited for the first time since Wonder of Water and the new Amazon Rising opened. Some thoughts.

Wonder of Water

Okay so obviously this isn’t as good as the old entry. Just getting that out of the way up front. Will the new Atlantic reef tank be better than the old one? That remains to be seen.

I think the concept is done about as well as it could be. There are loads of fish in both tanks and the reflection of the water just makes it look like there are more. In the freshwater tank it felt like I was constantly discovering new species filling different micro habitats. It’s quite well landscaped. The saltwater tank was a bit more of a generic reef tank but still had a lot of fish. I don’t really care for the Apple Store aesthetic of the whole thing, especially when contrasted with the historic rotunda around it. It’s fine. I like it. I still don’t entirely get the logic behind abruptly replacing the old entry.

Amazon Rising

Good to see one of Shedd’s big exhibits back and better than ever. It has Shedd’s usual problem of signage listing the species but not really doing much more. I’ve spoken about that at some length in the past so I won’t belabor the point. Didn’t see the birdeater or centipede. Anyone else had luck with them? Same with the lungfish, weirdly enough. And I’ve already resigned myself to never seeing the jungle frogs in the caiman lizard tank.

The birds in the entry tanks are fun. I like the jacana in particular, but the kids seemed fond of the ducks. Some of the entry tanks feel a little small for the stingray or large catfish. Maybe not. I get they’re kind of sedentary. A few different tanks had sweet potatoes for the catfish and turtles to eat.

I got to see a keeper try to feed the Mata-Mata but the turtle was not interested. The caiman happily snapped up the meal. The caiman lizard feels like a better inhabitant of that tank than the anaconda was. The new anaconda tank is above average for the species. Even provided enough space for them to hide fairly effectively. And a properly sized electric eel tank with multiple fish is pretty rare.

The new river giants tank is better than I was expecting. The Arapaima is probably the biggest fish but not really the tank’s star in practice. I did not know they planned to bring their gilded catfish on display. That thing is absolutely massive. The turtles were surprisingly active and drew a lot of public attention. I liked the sheer number of cichlids they had in the shoal. Overall a pretty worthy centerpiece for the exhibit complex.

Oh and the parrots were off display but sort of signed. Unsure what’s going on there.

Everything Else

I skipped wild reef because the line was backed up to the kelp forest tank. Saw everything else that’s still open.

I thought I hadn’t seen the pygmy sunfish on display before but am now realizing that they’re present, just very, very small. Spent a while looking at them after that. Sea lamprey continue to be my favorite species in the gallery, though. I don’t think there are any land animals left in the land tank in the Great Lakes Gallery.

There was a presentation going on in front of the kelp forest. It was actually pretty good at emphasizing the importance of kelp to people’s lives thousands of miles away.

I watched a dolphin show for the first time in ages. The dolphins started jumping out of the water and looking at the stands a few minutes before the show started, probably trying to gauge how much time they had left before feeding. They actually did more jumps in that time than during the actual show, which was quite short.

I ate in the food court for the first time in literal years. It’s… fine. Overpriced, even by zoo standards. There’s probably genuinely good food there if you order right but unless you’re visiting from eleven to three like I did it’s just best to wait and eat somewhere nearby.

I really wish they picked one cetacean and put the sea lions in the current beluga tank. They really don’t have room for both.

Idly considered going to a 4D show since it’s fairly cheap for members but ultimately decided against it. Anyone done one of them?
 
Persephone said:
I don’t really care for the Apple Store aesthetic of the whole thing, especially when contrasted with the historic rotunda around it. It’s fine. I like it. I still don’t entirely get the logic behind abruptly replacing the old entry.
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"Apple Store aesthetic" is such a great way to put it, thank you.

Persephone said:
Good to see one of Shedd’s big exhibits back and better than ever. It has Shedd’s usual problem of signage listing the species but not really doing much more. I’ve spoken about that at some length in the past so I won’t belabor the point. Didn’t see the birdeater or centipede. Anyone else had luck with them? Same with the lungfish, weirdly enough. And I’ve already resigned myself to never seeing the jungle frogs in the caiman lizard tank.
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I believe I saw the bird-eater in January, although only for a moment. It didn't seem like it wanted to be seen, which tracks.

Also agreed on the signage issue. It's my biggest pet peeve about the aquarium by far.

Persephone said:
I got to see a keeper try to feed the Mata-Mata but the turtle was not interested. The caiman happily snapped up the meal.
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Glad to know the mata-mata's around at least, I didn't spot it in January and wondered if it'd passed or been phased out.

Persephone said:
The new river giants tank is better than I was expecting. The Arapaima is probably the biggest fish but not really the tank’s star in practice. I did not know they planned to bring their gilded catfish on display. That thing is absolutely massive. The turtles were surprisingly active and drew a lot of public attention. I liked the sheer number of cichlids they had in the shoal. Overall a pretty worthy centerpiece for the exhibit complex.

Oh and the parrots were off display but sort of signed. Unsure what’s going on there.
Click to expand...
The parrots were present in January, interesting. I'm not sure I saw the big catfish but the turtles were definitely charming when the Arapaima were trying to hide.

Persephone said:
Idly considered going to a 4D show since it’s fairly cheap for members but ultimately decided against it. Anyone done one of them?
Click to expand...
I did a few 10-15ish years ago and it didn't seem worth it, but the movie turned out to be a heavy compressed version of one of the animated Ice Age films so that might have affected it compared to the nature documentaries shown now. The effects are like, the chairs shake, lights flash, sometimes they inject a smell, it definitely is more kid-oriented overall even allowing for the film.
 
nczoofan said:
Shedd has an updated map/guidebook for visitors. Interestingly it does show the layout of the new Oceans gallery that is being added, despite work having just begun on it. Its nothing major but it is cool to see how this exhibit will maximize this space and feature a variety of smaller tanks that have not yet been confirmed.
Click to expand...
One thing I never mentioned my thoughts about but I really, really hope for the Caribbean Tunnel, they do add another viewing panel that's just "normal", if you know what I mean. At least from a photography point of view, I hate how a lot of tunnel exhibits are just the tunnel themselves, and there's no simple, flat viewing panel area where you don't get a distorted view (for reference at least with my Sony camera, I have to stand a decent ways back from the curved part of the tunnel to have the animals not look distorted, which is very annoying a majority the time). Even if it's just a small one, I'm hoping for just a normal viewing panel because from what we know so far, the species list for the exhibit is pretty nice.

Actually, on the same topic, I'm surprised that they're going with Blacktip Reef Sharks for the tunnel, and not an actual Caribbean / Atlantic species of Shark to fit the theme. I don't remember them mentioning how big the tank would be, but I would've loved to see them use this as an opportunity to acquire some Atlantic Blacktip Sharks (Carcharhinus limbatus) somehow and get that species more established in the US. But I also wouldn't be surprised if this is their way of using the Blacktip Reef Sharks as a stand-in species, while also keeping the Bonnetheads from the old exhibit (I don't think it was ever mentioned if they're keeping the species or not, I really hope they are), since those two species should get along. Maybe we'll see some Nurse Sharks (Ginglymostoma cirratum) too since those are very common of course. I'm interested to see how it turns out.
 
Northwest_FIsh_Keeping said:
Actually, on the same topic, I'm surprised that they're going with Blacktip Reef Sharks for the tunnel, and not an actual Caribbean / Atlantic species of Shark to fit the theme. I don't remember them mentioning how big the tank would be, but I would've loved to see them use this as an opportunity to acquire some Atlantic Blacktip Sharks (Carcharhinus limbatus) somehow and get that species more established in the US. But I also wouldn't be surprised if this is their way of using the Blacktip Reef Sharks as a stand-in species, while also keeping the Bonnetheads from the old exhibit (I don't think it was ever mentioned if they're keeping the species or not, I really hope they are), since those two species should get along. Maybe we'll see some Nurse Sharks (Ginglymostoma cirratum) too since those are very common of course. I'm interested to see how it turns out.
Click to expand...
Love ya for pushing the blacktip agenda NWFK, haha. I would say that in order to really give the species an adequate home, the exhibit would need to be at a minimum about 250,000 gallons. From the renderings I’ve seen so far, I’m not entirely sure that that will be the size, so we’d definitely have to see. I would absolutely advocate for them if it is, but if it’s not another species that they could consider would be Caribbean reef sharks (C. perezi). I really have no idea why basically no aquarium in the United States has tried them out, given that Atlantis in the Bahamas has had great success with the species, including getting them to breed. They are much like gray reef sharks and would probably be suitable in about a 150,000 gallon tank.
 
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