Thousands of animals and plants thrive at The Montreal Biodôme where huge collections are housed and monitored closely around the clock. Year round inventory is taken, feedings are scheduled, plants are watered, and sick animals are nursed, while life continues its cycles.

The Biodôme isn’t a zoo, an aquarium, or a botanical garden, but it's all these things combined. It brings together four ecosystems - Tropical rainforest, Laurentian maple forest, Gulf of St. Lawrence, Labrador coast and sub-Antarctic islands - from the Americas, under one roof, each with a different climate.  

Earth Day celebrations of 2011 coincided with the Easter long weekend. Between April 22 to 25, the Biodôme, Botanical Garden and Insectarium,  Space for Life (Espace pour la Vie) institutions were open and invited everyone to attend and enjoy all kinds of fun, educational and even surprising activities to show that we care about our only home, Earth.

The Biodôme held a theatrical performance and an installation asking thought-provoking questions about how we manage our world, an exhibition and workshops to explore creative recycling, making crafts, hearing about and admiring the beauties of nature, and learning what we could do to help our planet!

In the Laurentian Forest there may be twenty or so species of birds flying around in winter. 

 Tropical Forest and is hit with a blast of pleasantly warm, humid air.

Some species are also protected by specific conservation programs.

 Crocodile

 Capybara heavyweight rodents

One can dive, without getting wet, beneath the surface in the St. Lawrence Marine ecosystem and admire the fish, before resurfacing to view the sights and listen to the noisy sounds of sea birds flitting about in the bracing salt air.  

Just by turning your head, you can see the similarities and differences between the birds that live in the Arctic and the Antarctic—more than 10,000 km apart in nature.

The penguins raise their chicks from November to February; and moult in February.  

Upon visiting the Gulf of St. Lawrence ecosystem at the Biodôme, one sees a copy of seal bones caught in a net, a beach littered with plastic and a heap of tires on the sea bottom. These illustrate the sad reality of all the plastic trash that is accumulating in, and slowly suffocating the ocean. 

Above: A penguin swimming on his back     ~          Below: Puffin

 Biodome swamp habitat

All photos are the property of F. Atalay

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Füsun Atalay ~ Copyright © Will of my Own - 2011