New Discovery Centre exhibit showcases ‘slow’ species
Posted May 11, 2019 02:11:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Survival of the Slowest exhibit is on display in Halifax from now until October 3.
“It's an incredible, beautiful interprative exhibit that takes people on a journey through a story of counterintuitive adaptations for survival,” says Paul “Little Ray” Goulet, the founder of Little Ray's Reptile Zoo, which put together the exhibit.
Survival of the Slowest features everything from lizards to tarantulas to tortoises.
“Everyone knows why it's good to be fast and big and strong, but there's also disadvantages to that,” Goulet says, “And if there's disadvantages to that, there must be advantages to being small, slow and weak.”
Goulet says the star of the show is a 14-month old two-toed sloth, named Lilo.
“I think the reality is there has always been an intrigue with sloths, they're amazing animals,” he tells NEWS 95.7's The Todd Veinotte Show.
Lilo is not the first sloth that Little Ray's has exhibited.
Roger, a two-year-old sloth who lives at their Ottawa zoo, has gone on tour with the company in the past.
“When you see them in person, they're ridiculously cute,” Goulet says. “But just even watching the way they move, how every movement isn't just slow but really looks calculated.”
Goulet says the exhibit will focus on why some animals came to be slow, instead of speedy. It will also have modules on energy requirements and what it means to be 'fit.'
“How an animal like that would evolve and how it would be able to sustain itself in such a competitive world,” he says. “I still don't have a firm understanding, but it obviously works for them.”
Although the Discovery Centre exhibit will be too busy for everyone to pet Lilo, Goulet says they can get an up-close look at her.
“She's highly social,” he says, despite the fact that the sloth sleeps upwards of 20 hours a day.
There will be a number of animals the public can interact with, including small lizards, snakes and a hedgehog.
Gaudet expects the exhibit to be popular in Halifax, as people try to find answers for something that doesn't make much evolutionary sense.
“I find people have this innate curiosity,” he says. “This real thirst for knowledge and figuring stuff out.”
