Ready for this jelly: colorful residents of the Audubon Aquarium
Learning with the fishes: The Audubon Aquarium and Insectarium
Paul Oswell
It’s brutally hot on this August afternoon, the cool breeze off the Mississippi River only just making a dent in the sun’s frankly rude plans. Cool, dark rooms are looking extremely welcoming, but since I’d just the day before spent five hours in the cinema watching a double bill of bombs and dolls, a change of pace seemed like a plan.
I really like aquariums (aquaria?), but I hadn’t been to the Audubon Aquarium since before this year’s reopening. I see they’ve quietly dropped the ‘of the Americas’ part of the name, but more importantly, they’ve spent some time revamping the facility and coaxing the Insectarium, like a moth to a $41million flame, into the building from its former home on Canal Street.
The place reopened this past June after eight months of renovations, the first major works since its grand opening in 1990. Here’s what the money got them: a completely redesigned insectarium, a butterfly garden, a walkthrough exhibit of wading birds and a reconfigured Gulf of Mexico exhibit that can be viewed from above as well as from eye level.
There’s a lively mix of families taking a break from the heat with me, busy but not too packed that you have to wait to see any of the fish. The ticket hall is now in a large, airy atrium so you don’t have to swelter lining up outside.
I instantly remember the jellyfish (who enjoy a larger tank now) that you see as one of the first exhibits, huge yellow and pillowy. The yellows and oranges look incredible against the dark water, almost like a Renaissance painting. Why aren’t there more portraits of jellyfish by the grand masters? They likely don’t sit still long enough.
Other old favorites pop up: ‘Tchompitoulas’ the white alligator, the mischievous penguins, the playful rays. The new Gulf exhibit (all 450,000 gallons of it) looks great, and the top-down view is a fine addition to the experience, and you can peek down on the sharks, redfish and one 50-year-old sea turtle. The Amazon Rainforest exhibit also enjoys an overhaul with new landscaping and plants as well as parrots and some free flying birds for a jungle-adjacent ambiance.
The new butterfly garden has you enter air-lock type rooms before you enter or exit, just to make sure that none of the flighty residents hitch a ride with you. It’s impossible to be in a bad mood in a butterfly garden, especially ones with such great views of the river. I saw one cranky family immediately break out into wide-eyed enchantment, quarrels allayed by the delicate beauty of the insects.
Speaking of, not all of the inmates of the Insectarium are this beautiful, but its move here makes sense. The conservationists can tie in how the insect world works in the wider ecology, and kids get to be grossed out (an important aspect of kid life) by the horns of the Hercules beetle or the giant grasshoppers.
This reporter did not quite have the constitution to try the snacks at the Bug Café, with its plates of Red Beans and Yikes, a dish that subs in waxworms for rice, or the supposedly-popular Crispy Cajun Crickets. Call me old fashioned, but I’ll save my insect meals until societal or ecological breakdown when Rouses just has shelves of termite-based ready meals. Listen, it means all the more for you, please enjoy.
A couple of hours later, I’m shuffling out of the gift shop, the temperatures outside dipping back to only slightly unreasonable. It’s refreshing to go to a newly-reopened attraction and to be able to see where the money went. Come for the thoughtful new exhibits and coherent design, stay for the supply of squabble-dissipating butterflies. (PO)
For ticketing and information visit audubonnatureinstitute.org
Paul Oswell
It’s brutally hot on this August afternoon, the cool breeze off the Mississippi River only just making a dent in the sun’s frankly rude plans. Cool, dark rooms are looking extremely welcoming, but since I’d just the day before spent five hours in the cinema watching a double bill of bombs and dolls, a change of pace seemed like a plan.
I really like aquariums (aquaria?), but I hadn’t been to the Audubon Aquarium since before this year’s reopening. I see they’ve quietly dropped the ‘of the Americas’ part of the name, but more importantly, they’ve spent some time revamping the facility and coaxing the Insectarium, like a moth to a $41million flame, into the building from its former home on Canal Street.
The place reopened this past June after eight months of renovations, the first major works since its grand opening in 1990. Here’s what the money got them: a completely redesigned insectarium, a butterfly garden, a walkthrough exhibit of wading birds and a reconfigured Gulf of Mexico exhibit that can be viewed from above as well as from eye level.
There’s a lively mix of families taking a break from the heat with me, busy but not too packed that you have to wait to see any of the fish. The ticket hall is now in a large, airy atrium so you don’t have to swelter lining up outside.
I instantly remember the jellyfish (who enjoy a larger tank now) that you see as one of the first exhibits, huge yellow and pillowy. The yellows and oranges look incredible against the dark water, almost like a Renaissance painting. Why aren’t there more portraits of jellyfish by the grand masters? They likely don’t sit still long enough.
Other old favorites pop up: ‘Tchompitoulas’ the white alligator, the mischievous penguins, the playful rays. The new Gulf exhibit (all 450,000 gallons of it) looks great, and the top-down view is a fine addition to the experience, and you can peek down on the sharks, redfish and one 50-year-old sea turtle. The Amazon Rainforest exhibit also enjoys an overhaul with new landscaping and plants as well as parrots and some free flying birds for a jungle-adjacent ambiance.
The new butterfly garden has you enter air-lock type rooms before you enter or exit, just to make sure that none of the flighty residents hitch a ride with you. It’s impossible to be in a bad mood in a butterfly garden, especially ones with such great views of the river. I saw one cranky family immediately break out into wide-eyed enchantment, quarrels allayed by the delicate beauty of the insects.
Speaking of, not all of the inmates of the Insectarium are this beautiful, but its move here makes sense. The conservationists can tie in how the insect world works in the wider ecology, and kids get to be grossed out (an important aspect of kid life) by the horns of the Hercules beetle or the giant grasshoppers.
This reporter did not quite have the constitution to try the snacks at the Bug Café, with its plates of Red Beans and Yikes, a dish that subs in waxworms for rice, or the supposedly-popular Crispy Cajun Crickets. Call me old fashioned, but I’ll save my insect meals until societal or ecological breakdown when Rouses just has shelves of termite-based ready meals. Listen, it means all the more for you, please enjoy.
A couple of hours later, I’m shuffling out of the gift shop, the temperatures outside dipping back to only slightly unreasonable. It’s refreshing to go to a newly-reopened attraction and to be able to see where the money went. Come for the thoughtful new exhibits and coherent design, stay for the supply of squabble-dissipating butterflies. (PO)
For ticketing and information visit audubonnatureinstitute.org