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Nick Bowman Features Editor | 770-718-3426 | life@gainesvilletimes.com
She (Times
gainesvilletimes.com
Friday, June 28, 2019
Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times
Above left: A King Snake on exhibit inside the Elachee Nature Center’s new live animal exhibit now open to the public. Above right: Sophie Paul takes a closer look at a tarantula spider
on display Wednesday, June 26, inside the Elachee Nature Science Center’s new live animal exhibit.
Elachee opens
revamped live
animal exhibit
Gopher tortoise gets new digs
BY KELSEY RICHARDSON
krichardson@
gainesvilletimes.com
After more than six
months of planning and ren
ovations, Elachee Nature
Science Center has opened
its new live animal exhibit
to the public.
Peter Gordon, director
of education at Elachee in
Gainesville, said before the
reconstruction the exhibit
was full of tables and aquar
iums. After receiving a gen
erous donation
from the Boat
wright Foun
dation, he said
the nonprofit
decided it was
time to give it a
polished look.
“It’s just like
if you live in a
house for many
years, you don’t
notice the imper
fections of it, but
other coming
in notice,” he
said. “It took a
while, but we’re
proud, happy
and relieved. It’s
a beautiful and
engaging place.”
The remodeling included
reflooring, painting the
walls and ceiling, installing
new lighting and rebuilding
the animal habitats.
Andrea Timpone, presi
dent and CEO of Elachee,
said by the end of construc
tion, approximately $70,000
was invested into the exhibit.
Around every corner, peo
ple can discover a different
species of wildlife. Unlike
the former exhibit, Gordon
said some of the animal
enclosures jut out from the
walls to break up the space.
The area contains 25-30
different species of rep
tiles and amphibians all
native to Georgia. Gordon
said Elachee owes the new
look of the displays to Dale
Brubaker, a designer from
Decatur.
Brubaker installed back
drops that reflect each of
the animal’s
native environ
ments while
designing the
enclosures.
Some of the
scenes include
a Piedmont
setting for
the grey rat
snake and the
coastal plains
for the yellow
rat snake.
“Dale is a
gifted individ
ual and has an
eye for detail
and planning,”
Gordon said.
The nature
center’s gopher
tortoise also received an
updated habitat. The rep
tile’s enclosure reflects its
natural Southeast Georgia
environment with succu
lents, sand and a burrow for
it to crawl into.
On one side of the wall,
people will see a row of dif
ferent rat snake species.
Gordon said this addition
was intentional, offering
visitors an easier means of
differentiating the types.
He finds that the exhibit
provides a “window into
Georgia’s wonderful
diversity.”
“Georgia is a remark
able state,” Gordon said.
“We’ve got such an extraor
dinary diversity of plants
and animals, even in our
backyards. This shows the
unique habitats of Georgia.”
The only non-native
aspect of the space is the
exotic animal enclosure.
Each month Gordon said
the center will rotate ani
mals from the particular
enclosure. It currently con
tains a tarantula.
Looking toward the
future, Elachee plans to
install more educational
narratives above the ani
mal’s habitats and intends
to add a space for animal
programs. This would
be located at the back of
the exhibit and provide
bleacher seating.
For now, Elachee wel
comes visitors to check
out the new and improved
space.
“It’s exciting,” Gordon
said. “Having this beauti
ful exhibit down here gives
folks even more of a reason
to come out to the nature
center.”
Elachee Nature Science
Center is located at 2125
Elachee Drive in Gaines
ville. For more informa
tion about the live nature
exhibit visit elachee.org or
call 770-535-1976.
‘It took a
while, but
were proud,
happy and
relieved. It’s
a beautiful
and engaging
place.’
Peter Gordon
director of education
at Elachee
Left: The Elachee
Center’s Amy
Bradford holds a
Wood Turtle inside
the Center’s new
live animal exhibit
Wednesday,
June 26. Below:
Bradford leads
a group of
youngsters through
The Elachee
Nature Center’s
new live animal
exhibit Wednesday,
June 26.
There are 10,000 trillion ants, and other fun insect facts
When the summer is in full
swing, it usually is a time when
the creepy crawlers are out in full
force.
It seems like every other outing
I have had in the past few weeks,
the conversation turns to a bug or
snake story. I don’t mind snakes
and like see them around. I like
insects as well. Mostly. Mosquitos,
roaches, horse flies, sand gnats
and fire ants I could go without.
A lot of my fellow agriculture
and natural resource agents are
entomologists and UGA has a
plethora of bug specialist on staff,
so I love when I can get them to
talk insects. It can be a lot of fun.
Insects are amazing creatures
and their place on this planet is
epic. If you don’t believe it, I will
prove it to you.
There are between six and ten
million species (900,000 known) of
insects around the globe and rep-
CAMPBELL VAUGHN
ecvaughn@uga.edu
resent about 80% of animal life
on earth. They can range in size
from .006 inches to almost 2 feet.
The insect with the most species is
the beetle with 380,000 different
varieties to choose from. A lady-
bug is a beetle and there are more
types of ladybugs than there are
mammals. More than one quarter
of all animal species are beetles.
If you are standing in line with 3
others waiting on an ice cream
cone, statistically speaking, one of
the others in line should be related
to a ladybug.
Ants are the most numerous
insect in the world. With more
than 10,000 species, their numbers
worldwide have been estimated
at as many as 10,000 trillion. My
smarty-pants son would say, “Dad,
that is 10 quadrillion, not 10,000
trillion.” Either way, that is a stag
gering figure.
A cockroach can live without
its head for weeks. I would like to
see if that lady I saw this morning
turning her car right from the left
lane can make it that long.
One of the best pollinators on
earth is the honey bee. One of the
reasons it is such a great pollinator
is that it has hair all over its body
that pollen sticks to, allowing it
to be carried from plant to plant.
There are so many hairs on the
honey bee, that they actually have
hair on their eyeballs. Honey bees
actually have five eyes — two of
them are made up of thousands
of smaller eyes. This lets these
honey-making machines see 300
frames per second as well as see
ultraviolet light.
Since caterpillars are a favorite
snack of birds, they have some
species that have a variety of
tricks to camouflage themselves.
Some look like bird poop, while
others look like twigs or even a
snake’s head.
One dung beetle can drag
over 1,100 times its body weight.
That would be like me toting the
space shuttle with a mobile home
attached. On the subject of strong
beetles, the well-named Hercules
beetle can carry 850 times its own
weight, making it pound for pound
the strongest creature on earth.
The assassin bug uses its mouth
like a straw to inject a toxin into
its prey that causes the victim’s
insides to liquefy. Then the straw
comes in handy for that not-so-
appetizing dinner.
One of the insects we refer to as
a beneficial insect — beneficial
because its prey includes pests that
make life harder for humans — is
a parasitic wasp. These little guys
use their stingers to lay eggs on
another insect to “host’ their eggs.
The larva eats the host slowly while
it gets larger. When the young wasp
emerges fat and happy, the “host”
wishes he would have checked the
guest list before perishing.
There are so many other amaz
ing traits, tricks, facts and habits
insects can exhibit. And as my
entomologist’s friends like to say,
bugs are cool.
Campbell Vaughn is UGA Extension-
Agriculture and Natural Resource
Agent in Richmond County. He can
be reached at ecvaughn@uga.edu.
