An Afternoon in The Rainforest

It really was a joy to return to the Moody Gardens Rainforest Pyramid.  I had been once before - probably around 8th grade - and knew that it was a neat adventure.  Construction began in the early '80's and the Rainforest Pyramid opened to the public in the early 1990's.  It's gone thru a major renovation after Hurricane Ike in 2008 - no damage to the Pyramid itself, it was designed to handle the strong winds - but the flood waters reached 14 feet in the parking lot.  The renovation included a canopy-level walk way, that gives visitors the ability to see the rainforest form an entirely new perspective.  Pretty neat:

It was really awesome to have a bird's eye view of the jungle-like environment.

We arrived around 4 in the afternoon, and hadn't thought about it until one of the on-staff biologists mentioned it, but about that time of the afternoon, all the nocturnal critters are starting to wake up and move about, whereas the day-time creatures (like the birds) are finding a place to bed down for the night.  Didn't think about that until we walked past the canopy area that contained the bats.  Yes, BATS!!

They were stretching and moving along, scratching their faces and bodies against the wired fencing of their containment area.  The pictures really don't show the size of these guys - their bodies were easily 6-8" long and 4-5' inches wide, thier wing span was easily 2 feet!  Like gerbils, but with wings.  Eek!

I was ready at that point to leave the canopy behind, but someone was blocking our exit!

Once Shaggy moved away from the door we were able to start our trek down to the forest floor.  The way they've designed the exhibits really is neat - you go from the outdoors, up in the heat and humidity, into an air-conditioned and dark area that houses numerous small creatures in terrariums so that you can get an up-close look at them.

Did I mention, it was air-conditioned?  There were a few of these areas spaced throughout the exhibit.  RDB and I were talking afterwards - they were spaced at just the right points where you'd have had just about enough of the 'natural environment' and were longing for a bit of a break.  That's smart engineering right there!  It made the entire experience enjoyable.

The floor of the rainforest was lush, lovely, and cool.

Probably the neatest part of our trip was the Ocelot.  Also known as a dwarf leopard, it's habitat is mostly in South America, but it's been seen as far north as Texas.  It was an incredible little critter!