Museum of Life & Science - Durham, NC

by Donna L. Watkins

© Donna L. Watkins - Ring-tailed Lemur

After beginning our tour with some fun in the children's area, we enjoyed the forested wildlife area with non-releasable wildlife. I was pleased to see the large natural habitats with woods, streams, waterfalls and no signs of stress.

This 6-acre outdoor exhibit was proclaimed a "national model" by the National Science Foundation.

The lemur exhibit is part of a study by Duke University and I had to dig more into that before deciding whether to visit this place since I don't feel like a university should "own" lemurs.

I found an article that made some sense of it all. I feel strongly that we should not allow something to become extinct if we can intervene and save an animal from the results of our own destruction of this planet. However, within that context there needs to be a stress-free environment or we're not doing the animals any good.

We enjoyed the farmyard area where we got to touch the animals. Then we journeyed into the Butterfly House with exotic butterflies, tropical plants and some close-up views of insects from around the world.

Inside the main museum area were exhibits on aerospace, geology, weather, and other science subjects. Visit the museum's website.   View the photo album of our five-hour visit.