Museum Getting Reptiles

The Penticton Museum and Archives is getting some new employees and they all eat bugs.

Museum Curator, Peter Ord, says they are building a new permanent exhibit which will feature local endangered reptiles such as frogs and salamanders.

“We are building an ‘amphibarium’ which includes three large aquariums. One will be filled with local fish, one with frogs and one with lizards. All are indigenous to the Okanagan and are endangered,” says Ord.

He says the animals will be gathered at their larval stage by local herpetologist Sara Ashpole.

“She will begin collecting the animals soon and then people will be able to watch as they go through their growth stages,” says Ord.

He says the addition of living animals to the museum does bring some special challenges.

“We have to have two special permits from the Ministry of Environment. One to go out and collect the animals and transport them and one to maintain them. We will be keeping them for the duration of their life because animals which become accustomed to living in captivity can’t easily be released. Also, we don’t know if they will pick up any viruses from their new environment and we don’t want to risk spreading anything to the wild population,” says Ord.

He says once they are settled in, the animals won’t be disturbed much by staff.

“We have hired a professional aquarium cleaner to come in and clean the tanks every two weeks, besides that we will have no reason to disturb them. People will be able to come right up to the tanks, but our staff will stop anyone from tapping the glass or disturbing the animals in any way,” says Ord.

He says the initial costs of the exhibit are being funded through a government program, but the on-going costs will be worked into the museum’s yearly budget.

There is no set opening date for the exhibit but Ord expects at least parts of it to be ready by June.