Biodome

This past weekend was packed with a couple fun activities.  I took a million pictures so I’m gonna split it up into a couple parts.

Saturday involved a day trip to Montreal to see the Biodome, a really fun place that reproduces 4 ecosystems, mimicking the appearance and climate of the areas along with housing some vegetation and animals native to that location.

Our adventure began in the Rainforest. It was a reproduction of a tropical rainforest in Costa Rica. Everything from the temperature (kept around 25 degrees – everyone had to peel off their sweaters), the humidity, and the lighting are built to mimic what the ecosystem is really like in South America. We were able to see alligators, parrots, monkeys, anacondas, piranhas, and toxic frogs. The last 3 were in aquariums behind glass of course.

Some noisy macaws.

Unfortunately, our attempts to find the sloths were unsuccessful and we finally moved on to the Laurentian Maple Forest. The temperature immediately dropped to about 15 degrees and everyone threw their sweaters back on, but it was still pretty humid. In this ecosystem they are actually able to mimic seasons through a number of factors; leaves on the trees really turn red in the Fall and flowers shoot up in the Spring. We saw an otter swimming and diving to catch and eat a few fish, some porcupines sitting in trees, beavers swimming in and out of the hole in the dam and my favourite of the Biodome – a pair of Canadian lynxes.

Lynx!

Next was the Gulf of St. Lawrence. One type of bird in this ecosystem was flying everywhere and a couple zoomed right past my ear. Above ground there were mostly various species of birds and sea anemone, but the underwater observatory was amazing with massive fish and stingrays.

Atlantic sturgeon

We finished in the polar regions: the Labrador Coast and Sub-Antarctic Islands. All animals here are kept behind glass. On the Labrador Coast, the temperatures and duration of sunlight again matches how it would be in the natural environment (about 12 degrees) with the main animal of interest being the puffin. The Antarctic is kept at about 2 degrees and the exhibit was filled with 4 different species of penguins. The King penguins didn’t move from their corner with their heads buried against their chests, just like in the movie the March of the Penguins. The Gentoo penguins were diving and speeding and chasing one another through the water, which was super entertaining; they would stop in front of kids pressed to the glass and speed away while the kids chased them. They were definitely the most fun and playful of the penguins.

Puffin

Rockhopper penguin 

King penguins