An inside look into the new live animal center exhibit at the Springfield Science Museum: “Living Waters: From Oceans to Valleys,”
Reminder Publishing submitted photos
SPRINGFIELD — The live animal center celebrates its return to the Springfield Science Museum with a new exhibition in the museum’s basement that showcases local habitats and habitats from around the world.
The exhibit, titled “Living Waters: From Oceans to Valleys,” allows visitors to get up close with local animals, like those from the Connecticut Valley Watershed; as well as animals from different habitats and biomes from around the world, like red boa constrictors from Central and South America or cichlids from the Eastern Africa Great Rift Valley.
“We’re trying to give a whole Earth perspective while still really pushing for conservation and [the idea of] starting in your own backyard,” said Jenny Powers, the director of the Springfield Science Museum.
In an interview, Powers said it was important for the museum to include habitats from the around the world because it gives people a chance to witness animals they have never seen before while also providing visitors an opportunity to learn more about conservation.
“Having that global perspective about ‘what we do here affects life on Earth everywhere’ is a really important lesson for conservation,” Powers said. “If you are inspired to try to conserve any animal in the world; that helps all of us, so hopefully people will get that conservation message more than anything.”
When visitors arrive, they can explore the many different terrariums and aquariums featuring a range of animals. Aside from local aquariums like the Connecticut River Watershed Aquarium and the New England Lake Aquarium, patrons will also find terrarium and aquariums that represent different places from around the world, like the Lake Tanganyika Aquarium, the Epaulette Aquarium and the Poison Dart Frogs Terrarium.
According to Powers, the creation of the entire exhibit was partially covered by a federal grant of $465,000, which funded the refurbishment and addition of new tanks along with the life support that is done behind the scenes.
“That’s really important because we want our fish to be healthy and safe,” Powers said of that grant. That was a huge upgrade.”
The museum also received a grant from the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism to pay for some of the construction costs, and another one from the Mabel Louise Riley Foundation to cover some interactive aspects of the exhibit, including a fully touchable map of the Connecticut River Valley Watershed and a 5-foot long model of a wood turtle that people can hop on to take pictures with.
Powers said the map is great because it allows people to pinpoint familiar locations and learn more about the Connecticut River Valley. She added that the wood turtle model and the map also benefit those who are blind or have low sight.
“The turtle is so detailed and the details are all correct,” Powers said. “The textures; the folds underneath the neck; those are all accurate.”
Powers said that the current iteration of “Living Waters: From Oceans to Valleys” is considered the first phase of the exhibit. Down the road, the museum plans to add a second phase featuring a bigger interactive component where visitors can learn through play.
For now, though, Powers is excited to see the impact this new exhibit will have in the present.
“This place was really ready to tell a cohesive story,” Powers said. “I hope that a lot of families come over and form a relationship with our animals here because they’re not the museum’s animals … they’re everybody’s animals.”
Readers can learn more about “Living Waters: From Oceans to Valleys” by visiting the Springfield Museums website, tinyurl.com/eauf6uz8. Springfield Museums are typically open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays through Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
