Zoo visitors bugged out

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This article was published 17/05/2018 (2771 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Like a scene from the movie Honey I Shrunk the Kids, visitors are surrounded by enormous bugs.

A cockroach the size of a minivan hisses and twitches. A bee as big as an elephant prepares to take flight.

Spectators can see and hear the gigantic insects up close, but without the fear of being eaten, at the Xtreme Bugs exhibit that opened Thursday afternoon at the Assiniboine Park Zoo.

“It’s taking that creepy, crawly, fear factor away,” said Grant Furniss, the zoo’s senior director of animal care and conservation.

But not entirely. The sounds of the massive Madagascar hissing cockroach, the furtive movements of the four-metre-tall praying mantis and the six-metre-long giant Japanese hornet’s stinger are a little menacing.

“People can expect to see a very immersive exhibit,” said Furniss. Signs at each of the bugs explain the science behind an insect’s appearance, behaviour, and survival — and the crucial role that the bug plays in the environment.

“Hopefully, it will inspire people to protect bugs,” Furniss said.

“If we don’t have bees, planet Earth dies,” he said as the first visitors to the exhibit, the Grade 2 class from Immanuel Christian School, inspected the incredibly big insects and arachnids.

“It was the best time at the zoo, ever,” said teacher Elaina Desrochers’ student Dalia. She and her Grade 2 classmates won a zoo contest that allowed them to be first to tour the Xtreme Bugs exhibit.

Desrochers said her class has studied growth and changes in animals and the exhibit was a fun way to learn about bugs and the vital role they play in the ecosystem, “instead of just squishing them.”

Former City of Winnipeg entomologist Taz Stuart was at the opening of the exhibit for a quick sneak peek, taking pictures and marvelling at the massive insects.

“It’s beautiful,” he said as he dashed past a gigantic version of an old friend, a mosquito-eating dragonfly.

Xtreme Bugs will be in Winnipeg for a limited time, and the price is included in regular zoo admission, the zoo said in a news release.

While it is on, the zoo is offering bug-themed programs and workshops for pre-school aged children and school groups for an additional cost. For more, see www.assiniboinepark.ca

Xtreme Bugs is located along the same trail where Dinosaurs Alive! was shown. That exhibit, with 16 life-size animatronic dinosaurs, drew big crowds to the zoo in 2016 and 2017 and earned a Manitoba Tourism innovation award.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca