When these guys turned toward me I felt like I was facing a Congressional committee.
The Montreal Biodome
The Biodome is a tourist attraction in Montreal. (Not to be confused with the Biosphere, which is a completely different thing.) In the Biodome they have created four climate zones that visitors may walk through. Each zone is set up with the weather conditions corresponding to various parts of the world. Inside they’ve put the animals, plants, and whatever else is needed to recreate that zone. Visitors cohabit the space with the flora and fauna. Sounded like fun, so we decided to go visit on Friday.
The Rainforest Zone
Capybara
Golden Lion Tamarin
Checking Out the Zones
The first (and most interesting) zone is the rainforest. It was really hot and humid in there, but it seemed about right for a rainforest. The strangest-looking creature that we saw there was the capybara. This is actually a rodent, but looked to me more like a miniature hippo. It was at least three feet long, maybe more. In the rainforest we also saw some beautiful birds and some interesting varieties of monkey. Other zones included the maple forest (much cooler!), the seaway, and the Antarctic (behind glass).
Cotton-Top Tamarin
This one was stuffed, fortunately.
Penguin, relaxing. Doesn’t he look comfortable?
Maple Forest zone
Vulture. This is as close as I ever want to get to this guy.
The St. Lawrence Seaway zone
Beautiful rain forest bird
An auk, from the Antarctica zone
Rockhopper Penguin