![]() The walkways near these exhibits mirror the animal habitats, with kids able to run and jump on roped bridges, platforms and a mock tree that resembles the design of the squirrel monkey exhibit. Giving visitors a sense of what it would feel like to be the animals they’re looking at is also a feature of the wild woods area, where guests can see squirrel monkeys and coatis, small mammals that resemble and are related to raccoons. “We want to meet that in every way that we can with soothing music, with beautiful graphics, with welcoming exhibits and habitats for the animals so that people want to see what’s inside and learn more about them.” It’s less easy to love a cockroach,” said Howorth. ![]() ![]() Guests can watch Howorth and her team care for various spiders, beetles and caterpillars from behind a clear glass pane and will be able to ask the team questions through an intercom. She hopes visitors walk out seeing insects as a key part of healthy ecosystems and less as creepy crawlies. It’s all a dream come true for Paige Howorth, the zoo’s curator of invertebrates. And there’s a two-story leafcutter ant habitat where you can see these industrious insects snip leaf bits and drag them to underground chambers to grow fungus and feed their larvae - not so different from how farmers cultivate crops. Nearby, visitors can peer through glass panels and see a real hive buzzing with activity and learn about native bee species, too. The area near the entrance looks like an open field, with digital images of butterflies, dragonflies, grasshoppers and fireflies dancing across the walls.įurther in, there are giant beeswax-coated panels shaped into larger-than-life honeycombs so that children can imagine themselves as bees. Nearby is the rainforest section, centered around the two-story, 10,000-square-foot McKinney Family Spineless Marvels building, which plunges visitors into the world of insects, spiders and other invertebrates. ![]()
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