Something flew by. It zipped overhead so quickly I never saw it. It might have been a mourning dove. It could have been a cardinal. Possibly, it was a bluebird. I heard only the fluttering of wings but turned my head too late to identify the species.
At the Wonders of Wildlife American National Fish and Wildlife Museum, there may be strange encounters of the personal kind with fish, fowl or mammals living on the premises. Sometimes there is glass between the human and the resident. Sometimes not.
You might bump into a turkey wandering the stone walkways. Once, a volunteer lectured a turkey about right of way, suggesting that visiting youngsters took precedence. It is not certain how much the turkey comprehended.
The museum, 500 miles from Chicago, is a 92,000-square-foot institution conceived by John L. Morris, the bass fisherman-turned-founder of Bass Pro Shops. The flagship Bass Pro Shop store is located next door.
During a recent visit to the area, I was able to visit the vast, $52 million museum, which opened in November 2001 and has a growing reputation. It is still growing. There are plans to add an IMAX theater and an education center and display many more of the now-stored taxidermy items.
“It is going to expand more,” public relations spokesman Gary Ellison said. “This is one of the only places in the world that is an aquarium and a zoo and a museum.”
The museum has 260 live species. When it was dedicated, late Missouri governor Mel Carnahan called it “the Smithsonian of the outdoors.”
There are amphibians galore in the museum, requiring hundreds of thousands of gallons of water in a variety of tanks, and numerous hands-on exhibits.
“The whole thing is kid-friendly,” said Ellison, who doubles as Missouri’s ragtime piano player, though he does not serenade all attendees.
I don’t know if I classify as a kid or not, but my two favorite exhibits involve sharks and alligators. The four sharks, living in a very large aquarium, circle and circle. You can stand and watch them for a very long time, imagining the damage they can do with their sharp teeth. The alligator, on the other hand, has been known to lie still for hours.
I caught the alligator’s act twice in one day. In the morning, it lay still, eyes focused across the clear glass to the next exhibit, where a three-decades-old snapping turtle hung out. Hours later, I returned and the alligator lay still at the other end of its enclosure. It was parallel to a log and almost indistinguishable from it. No wonder Ellison said, “Some people think it’s a fake alligator.”
The operation has a free flight aviary–where the birds zoom around–and the same kind of waterfalls, pools and trees that may be seen in a nearby Ozark Mountains forest.
The turkeys still hang out, usually scooting among low brush. During the last mating season, however, they became too aggressive, Ellison said.
“They started chasing people, so we had to give them a timeout,” he said.
Quail are quite individualistic, too, according to Misty Mitchell, director of life sciences for the museum.
“Quail like to go where they want to go,” she said. “Most of the time they stay here, but sometimes they go to the next section.”
Staff scuba divers enter the 130,000-gallon community pool at feeding time to swim with the fishes. One, Russell Bridges, fed a catfish by hand. The fish took a nibble and left. The fish seemed to be saying, “Got some ketchup?” Bridges ended up throwing the food in front of the fish’s face.
Other fan favorites are Capella, a female bald eagle from Alaska with a broken wing, and the swift swimming river otters.
“Kids love the otters,” Mitchell said.
The Wonders of Wildlife museum has an exhibit on the evolution of hunting, from the earliest days to what the modern hunter is wearing and carrying. It features a “Why I Hunt” display with tape-recorded messages from devoted hunters. Sara Parker, an attorney who is on the museum board, talked about her experiences.
“You can go to the woods and sit down and get a perspective on life,” she said.
The Heroes of Conservation Library is fascinating. Ellison said the room replicates President Teddy Roosevelt’s study from his home in Long Island, N.Y. It is a warm room, with a thick leather couch, books on shelves and a chandelier made of antlers. The room honors Roosevelt, a conservationist and outdoorsman who created the National Wildlife Refuge system, and conservationist Aldo Leopold, wildlife artist John James Audubon, naturalist and editor George Bird Grinnell and biologist, author and hunter Frances Hammerstrom.
A clever, final tribute is offered to the next unknown conservation hero. There is an empty podium beneath a sign reading, “Will this be you?” Visitors can pose for photographs and dream of making a difference.
