Perhaps the (live animal) exhibit area that I have the most vivid memories of from my visit to Johnny Morris Wonders of Wildlife Museum and Aquarium is the Swamp by Night. It's a darkened, two-tiered habitat in which visitors meander across rope bridges through darkened hallways to see a variety of wetland creatures, including owls (visible from inside a hunters blind) and North American river otters, in one of those all-indoor aquarium exhibits that I've come to dislike so much. There are also several reptiles and invertebrates here, including one of the stranger rattlesnake exhibits I've ever seen, which is actually set into the floor of the hallway, with visitors walking over it. I had so many questions about that exhibit, including how keepers service it and what sorts of protections are in place to buffer the snakes - notoriously sensitive to vibrations, from visitors stomping all over the roof of their exhibit, deliberately or otherwise (which I suspect happens a lot). Giant fish, such as alligator gar and paddlefish, can also be observed.
And, like any swamp exhibit worth its Spanish moss, there are alligators - including a white alligator, which were tremendous novelties when I was a kid, but their explosion in numbers and availability have somewhat diluted the experience. The alligators are seen in the lower level of the swamp habitat, though they may be initially glimpsed from the upper level (again confusing me a little, as I was unsure how to get to them). This lower level also features beavers (visible either underwater or with a window into their lodge), waterfowl, and another view of the gar, catfish, and other giant river fish. There was an indoor/outdoor habitat for American black bears, though I believe the aquarium has recently lost this species and is looking to repurpose that exhibit space for another species. And, in what was a somewhat disappointing addition, there was the smallest and, if I'm going to be blunt, worst habitat for lesser flamingos (or any flamingos) I think I'd ever seen - small flock, small exhibit, and nocturnal - who does a nocturnal flamingo exhibit? And why African/South Asian birds in an otherwise North American exhibit? Black- or yellow-crowned night heron would have been a more appropriate fit.
Another freshwater habitat is tackled in the Amazon area, this one more conventional. There's a decent collection of freshwater fish and herps, covering most of the usual suspects that you see in Amazon exhibits in aquariums - electric eel, piranha, matamata, green anaconda, dart frogs. Birds and mammals get slight representation with aracaris and marmosets. Nearby is a cave of fruit bats. Like other exhibit areas, this was a bit confusing, and here I had to do some doubling-back to make sure I didn't miss any of the smaller exhibits.
Surprisingly, past the entrance there aren't too many saltwater exhibits. There are some jellyfish, and a coral reef tank, and some small side tanks. The classic shark-and-sea turtle-tank, usually the crown jewel of any aquarium, is actually fairly small and wasn't terribly impressive or well-highlighted. Interspersed between these exhibits are more displays on fishing, including a Bass Fishing Hall of game, as well as an admittedly impressive display of sea shells. Visitors eventually find themselves back at the stingray touch pool that they observed towards the beginning of their trip (this time at level with the tank, at the base of the towering cylindrical Shipwreck Reef that it surrounds) before returning to the lobby. From here, they can access the Wildlife (taxidermy) Galleries, among which the penguins are tucked away.
I left Wonders of Wildlife with two competing but not-quite contradictory impressions. First, parts of it were beautiful - the Swamp by Night was visually striking as was the Mangroves (though here, as elsewhere in the aquarium, the décor sometimes overpowered the exhibits), I thought Shipwreck Reef was very attractive, especially the first view from above, and it definitely had a distinctive feel compared to many of the aquariums I've been to, many of which feel, as I've said, very similar. The second was that I didn't especially like it. It felt like it would have been a cool place to host an event, and if I were making a movie or TV series that had a scene set in an aquarium it would have made awesome scenery. But as a place to actually see the animals and observe and admire them, I felt like it left something to be desired. Signage was pretty bad (even by aquarium standards) and visibility in some cases worse.
This was really driven home for me at the River Monsters tunnel, home to large freshwater fish from around the world. It was just so dark! A large fish was right in front of me - the signage that was present narrowed it down to arapaima and alligator gar, two species I've seen plenty of times in large aquariums and should know on sight - but it was just so dark that I couldn't tell what it was. Similarly the snake-in-the-floor exhibit. How am I supposed to actually see the snake when people are walking over the only viewing portal constantly?
I didn't find the inclusion of fishing exhibits to bother me, even if they didn't terribly interest me, and the taxidermy galleries I (mostly) found quite good. Still, Wonders of Wildlife struck me as a facility that was more focused on its aesthetics than its animals, and I could easily see a visitor leaving impressed by the visual experience and uniqueness of the display, without really having seen the animals. So essentially... I wasn't WoWed.
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