The Wildlife Experience

Members of the Media--Click here for the online media kit.

Globeology is a very dynamic and interactive journey along a quarter mile path in an expansion of over 25,000 square feet of new exhibit space. Visitors experience many compelling places that help maintain the planet's ecological equilibrium. Along the way, they'll encounter state-of-the-art animatronics and special visual effects, sound effects and interactive touch screens with bio-facts and trivia games that are relative to the different biomes. These features in conjunction with the realistic exhibits provide visitors with a unique and immersive experience with the world's wildlife and habitats.

Through a partnership with Real D (The company behind the 3-D magic of Avatar and Up!, the San Diego Zoo, Wild Animal Park and Digital Revolution Studios), Globeology hosts six 3-D stops along the trail for visitors to don their Ray Ban looking glasses and step into a whole new world.

The Wildlife Experience is the first museum in the country to bring in technology of this nature, enhancing the way visitors learn about wildlife and habitat. See a cape buffalo charge and a snake strike like you never have before - so close you can almost touch them…without having to worry about their teeth!

Science On A Sphere

Occupying the introductory gallery that precedes Globeology is an educational element developed by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration called Science on a Sphere. Science on a Sphere is a global display that utilizes computer imagery and multiple projectors to project information about Earth onto a six-foot diameter sphere. The effect is that of a life-like hovering globe displaying animated content that covers information on topics such as atmospheric storms, climate change and ocean temperature. Science on a Sphere’s high-impact educational introduction is a synergistic complement to the exhibit and serves to prepare guests for the adventure that awaits them in Gobeology.

Click on the images below to learn more about the biomes of Globeology.

Visitors begin their Globeology journey high in the canopy of the rainforest. Soaring above the forest floor along a rope bridge, adventurers enter the canopy environment - an environment most will never experience first-hand. Birds and forest sounds saturate this biome in concert with the roar of a fourteen-foot waterfall cascading to the forest floor. Howler monkeys shriek and toucans and parrots chatter a warning of the incoming thunderstorm to adventurers and rainforest inhabitants. As guests explore this biome, they are rewarded with the discovery of animatronic bats, a fern grotto tucked behind the waterfall and an interactive video game that engage them in facts on current issues facing the rainforest, wildlife observation and daily rainforest life.

As adventurers immerse themselves in the Temperate Forest biome, an abundance of wildlife slowly emerges. The sunlight gets dimmer in the exhibit and exposes fireflies dancing on gentle breezes, among other creatures of the night, as sounds and smells tease the senses. Indigenous plant life, such as hardwood forests of Oak and Maple trees, surround visitors and encapsulates them in a forest brimming with activity. Continuing their journey in the forest, visitors soon discover that more to this habitat resides underground. When they discover the underground cave that is common to this biome, visitors are introduced to a world of stalagmites and stalactites, blind cave fish and the surreal environment in which they exist beneath the Temperate Forest.

Globeology offers guests the opportunity to explore a variety of the world's ecosystems, but none as extreme as the tundra. Guests are "chilled" as they enter this habitat to observe polar bears, seals and a school of narwhal all thriving in one of the most challenging and endangered environments on earth. Explorers will be treated to a beautiful display of the Aurora Borealis on the horizon of this frozen ecosystem, and even the occasional snowfall! Outside another cave, an animatronic researcher awaits visitors, and discusses polar ice cap melting, and how it is affecting wildlife in the northern regions of the world. Inside the cave, visitors will play an interactive game that teaches them about the difficulties of going on an Arctic Expedition.

The largest of the biomes in Globeology, the Savanna provides a wide assortment of animal specimens, from giraffes, wildebeest, baboons and lions. The diversity of life in Africa comes to life as guests narrowly escape an animatronic crocodile emerging from the water and Masai people demonstrating their pastoral lifestyle. For the ardent adventurer, closer inspection of the biome reveals the life of a kill site. Here, visitors observe how food is utilized best in a place where the law of the food chain rules. Younger explorers can enter a giant Baobab tree to play an interactive game that challenges them to be the racing cheetah as it hunts impala.

Adventurers enter the Asian Highlands biome, which displays the splendor of both the highland and lowland environments of Asia. The high peaks of the Himalayas soar over visitor's heads and visitors learn that the most inaccessible habitats are not pristine due to man's disturbance and negligence. Visitors will also learn about the human and tiger struggle that currently affects this part of the world. Here, tigers are protected despite their increasing numbers, but their natural habitat is diminishing due to development, creating a close-quarters conflict between humans and tigers. As an additional reward in this biome, guests can interact with an animatronic specimen of a panda bear, an iconic image of Asiatic wildlife and current endangered and protected species.

Having spent most of their journey on terra firma, explorers now take the plunge into the ocean environment upon entering the Coral Reef biome. Moving along sandy corridors and coral hummocks, divers will be delighted by moray eels, sharks, clownfish, grouper, manta rays and more that lurk in the coral crevices. Those wanting to explore the deepest depths of the ocean will find their bounty in a cave that reveals a truly unusual environment-that of a geothermic black smoker that is only found on the ocean floor at unimaginable depths. Exploring this habitat, guests will be awed by the alien-like sulfur-based life forms that call this biome "home". Throughout the Coral Reef biome, aquariums will showcase a sampling of the wide variety of live specimens that make this ecosystem one of the most diverse and colorful found on earth.

The desert biome exposes an abundance of life that exists in these seemingly barren environments ... especially at night! Entering this hotter biome, desert life comes alive with snakes, scorpions and spiders. Visitors observe the difference between day and night life in the desert, complete with nocturnal, and will observe the differences of life forms and activity that takes place at night in a desert. To demonstrate the forces of nature that shape these bucolic environments, guests interact with touch-screens that display the power of desertification, dune migration and the awesome and unpredictable power of flashfloods.

Visitors end their journey in Wild Colorado, which covers four major habitats of our great state from the Great Plains to the peaks of the Rocky Mountains. By combining traditional exhibit elements and the latest in technology, Wild Colorado is an immersive exhibit experience complete with animatronics, realistic exhibit displays, interactive touch screens and life-like environments.

Text/HTML