An hour at the Montréal Biodome

Biodome exterior
(Photo: Space for Life)

On the day the rest of the world was obsessing over that eclipse thingy (it wasn’t too impressive from Québec), I spent my afternoon at the Montréal Biodome, an interior zoo in the Space for Life complex right next to the Olympic Stadium. It’s very nifty: visitors follow a linear path through four distinct replica ecosystems – the tropical rainforest, the Laurentian maple forest, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, and the sub-polar region (divided into the Labrador coast and the sub-Antarctic islands) – through which they can find around 4,500 different animals across 230 species (with an additional 750 plant species for the floraphiles).

Montréal Biodome interior (Gulf of Saint Lawrence)
(Photo: Space for Life)

The only drawback was the place isn’t all that huge, so the whole visit only lasted an hour (entrance wait time excluded). I would’ve loved to visit the neighboring Insectarium, Botanical Garden and Planetarium as well, but time and money only permit so much, especially since they all close at 5–6 PM most days, a problem for a night owl like me.

Still, it was a splendid hour, and I snapped off about 150 photos with my phone camera, roughly half of which I ultimately kept. Apologies for the graininess of some of them; I know bupkes about photography and this was quite literally my first-ever occasion to document an outing with my own camera (I’ve led a photographically challenged life). That said, the beauty of the place and its critters ought to make up for it.

Click each photo to view its full size (1920×1080) in a new tab. Note that the post is, obviously, very image-heavy, so see them all below the fold.

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First up is the Tropical Rainforest exhibit, which replicates everything down to the muggy heat; it’s like walking into a mild sauna. My glasses literally fogged up. But it makes up for it with its sheer beauty:

I actually took these pics a bit later once I realized I’d forgotten to properly showcase the place.

All the vegetation is real. The same applies to every other ecosystem, though I naturally forgot to take wide shots of the rest of them. Oh well.

The first animal we saw was a capybara … who was too busy munching on something behind that stump to give me a decent portrait. How selfish.

There’s supposedly dozens and dozens of creatures around there, but most are so well hidden they’re all but impossible to find and photograph. (I think I saw the resident sloth, but it might have been a misshapen lump of moss high up in a tree. Hard to tell.)

I did see a couple of golden lion tamarins, though:

These scarlet macaws were pretty chill. I think we caught them in their afternoon nap.

Halfway through the rainforest exhibit there’s a little tunnel with various aquariums. Here’s a redtail catfish. I thought it looked oddly cute. (Sorry for all the people and reflections in these pics; the place was quite crowded, as befitting a museum that sees about 800,000 visitors per year.)

Have some fish. It slipped my mind to take shots of the species information panels and I couldn’t find them in any identification guides, so I’ll just call them stripey round flat fish. (See how creative I am?)

Poison frogs! They’re surprisingly tiny – probably five or six could fit into your hand, easily. Though that would likely send you to the morgue, so do abstain.

Green and black poison frog (actual name)

Yellow-banded poison frog

First thing I saw leaving that tunnel was this turkey vulture. He didn’t seem inclined to start circling above me, so I moved on.

Crocodile! Actually, a yacare caiman, as I later found out (I’m really terrible at reading those species information panels). Unfortunately I could only get a shot of ie whilst zoomed in, and my phone’s camera doesn’t do “zoomed in” at the same time as “good resolution”, so this is the best I could do.

All the while we were being deafened by this guy (or gal?):

This hyacinth macaw here apparently got woken from its own afternoon nap, ’cause it was a bit cranky, bobbing and squawking all over.

This roseate spoonbill gave me the cold shoulder throughout, refusing to turn around for a decent shot. Well, two could play at that game: I just walked away. Take that, bird.

Here’s a white-faced whistling duck, which so far wins the “most misleading name” award since I didn’t hear even one whistle.

Have some more birds: Northern helmeted curassows, southern screamers, and assorted duck-things.

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Next was the Laurentian Maple Forest, and after the sticky heat of the rainforest it felt like walking into an air-conditioned room. With all the maple trees around I felt right at home.

Lake trout.

This one made sure to swim nice and slow & up close – I think it overestimated how photogenic its dopey fish face was. Still, I obliged.

Otters! The adorable little buggers were too quick for me to get a good shot of them (a recurring theme with these animals).

This one spent a while wrestling with that fake log thing.

It’s hard to say who won.

Have a midland painted turtle. It just kinda stumbled around there for a bit.

Some wood ducks in the distance. They didn’t do much.

This American beaver just drifted around like a lazy bastard who knows people like him anyway because of how cute he is.

Nibble nibble.

A couple raccoons were chasing each other around the trees and the ground, but these are the only two pics I took that came out even halfway decent.

And now, the star of the show:

Canadian lynx! Honestly, considering how many visitors report never even glimpsing it – it’s freakishly well camouflaged in those grey cliffs – I consider myself lucky to have snapped even these paltry shots. (I also saw a second one, but it decided to skedaddle behind some rocks before I could snap a shot of it.)

Stay classy, kitty.

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Third came the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, and oh hello Steve-Irwin-murderer.

Actually, that’s a barndoor skate, which takes the prize for most why-on-earth-did-scientists-name-it-that. It looked friendly enough.

An interesting property of the barndoor skate: when viewed up close, it turns blurry. Well, that, or I’m no good with a camera.

Then again, this big ol’ Atlantic sturgeon came out just fine.

At the back of the room was a tubular aquarium with a variety of mollusks and crustaceans and assorted rock-clinging things. Including this window-hugging … thingamabob. I have no idea what on earth it is, or why it’s so rudely showing everyone its underside like that. Some invertebrates are raised with no manners, I tell you.

Oh hello, hermit crab. And various sea stars and frilled anemones.

A rather tough-looking little rock crab.

Also, this camera-shy little fella. No idea what it is, though.

Not sure what these are – krill? Baby shrimp? They’re white, clingy and look like they’re permanently two seconds away from getting gobbled up by a passing fish.

Further along, we arrive at the denizens of Planet Nine. They’re known here as moon jellyfish.

They’re fairly pretty.

Which is more than I can say for this Atlantic wolffish.

Have a blood sea star.

We then arrived out in the open, where this little whimbrel failed to greet us as their esteemed guests. Just stood there, doing nothing. Hmph.

Just as we arrived the sprinklers activated and a mist rolled in, creating a fairly soothing ambiance. Lots of various waterfowl: harlequins, common eiders, buffleheads, probably more.

On the far ledge were these black guillemots cooling their heels.

At least, until these two lovebirds started some sort of necking contest.

By the looks of it, they both won.

Not that these black-legged kittiwakes cared.

A close-up shot. Really lovely plumage.

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Afterwards we arrived at the last ecosystem, the Sub-Polar Region, and its first division, the Labrador Coast. The place is full of these Atlantic puffins:

Unfortunately, most of them were too busy sleeping to make for great photo models.

This one really, really loved the water jet – it spent probably five solid minutes trying to swim against current, spinning like an aquatic ballerina and generally having a grand ol’ time.

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There’s honestly not that much to see here, so we then moved on to the final habitat, the Sub-Antarctic Islands – also known as Penguin Central, ’cause there’s a horde of these buggers.

They’re also as graceful and agile out of the water as you’ve heard. Here’s one trying valiantly to scale a short incline:

He spent a good minute slipping and sliding and stumbling …

Nevertheless, he persisted.

Victory! Now he can join his friend.

… Who doesn’t seem very impressed with his pal’s athletic prowess.

Really, really doesn’t.

Meanwhile, at the other end were a slew of northern rockhopper and macaroni penguins (known by their yellow hair-like frills) and a few king penguins.

They’re also the squabbling-est of them all. The two in the center here were at each other’s, er, beaks for a while.

They eventually formed a truce.

I wish I’d taken video of these guys (a gentoo penguin here) swimming. They’re like plump, black-and-white torpedoes.

More penguins arguing.

Another swimmer.

To cap it all off, have this almost-majestic pose. (Sorry, penguin, but there’s no pose you can make that’ll look majestic. You’re too silly and adorable for that.)

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And so concludes my day. Not a bad way to spend $15 each (for Québec residents, $20 for everyone else). Maybe someday I’ll go back and take it a bit slower, and preferably I’ll have a better idea how to use my camera by then.