The Two Oceans Aquarium will extend its hours over the festive season so that visitors can relax in its cool tranquility after a long hot day at the beach or the mall.
The Aquarium, showcasing more than 3000 animals, including sharks, penguins, turtles and now frogs, will be open from 09h30 to 20h00 between 17 December 2008 and 7 January 2009. During this period, the Aquarium’s new Predator Bar will be open from 17h00 to 20h00 so that visitors can enjoy a glass of Two Oceans wine with the frogs or a shot with the sharks!
As an all-weather venue, the Two Oceans Aquarium is the ideal destination for families wanting to escape the heat and bustle. The highlight this season is the brand new exhibit, Frogs-Beyond the Pond, which opened recently in partnership with the City of Cape Town. This themed and highly interactive gallery immerses visitors in the world of frogs and invites them to ‘jump in’ to find out more about these quirky yet extremely threatened creatures. Explore the wonderful world of frogs by entering an enchanted garden where everything is larger than life. A large interactive touch screen magnifies frog species, their habitats and some of the threats which face these misunderstood animals.
The main attraction in the gallery is the much-anticipated fully-automated puppet show titled, Your Friend the Frog. The show entertains young and old alike as the hero, a western leopard toad, undertakes a journey, fraught with the dangers of impenetrable garden walls, speeding cars and hungry herons, from a suburban garden to a beautiful wetland to find his mate. The toad shares the stage with a cast of other vibrant, colourful characters, including two outrageous dragon flies from the Cape Flats, who use humour and music to convey important frog messages to the audience.
In conjunction with the interactive gallery, live frog exhibits have been incorporated into the existing Sappi River Meander Exhibit. The exhibits house mainly local species including the common platanna, arum lily frog, Cape river frog and the endangered Western leopard toad. These exhibits offer a glimpse of frog species which are fairly common in the Western Cape, but are rarely seen by most people.
Other favourites include the Nemo exhibit (an interactive display which allows visitors to be photographed as if ‘inside’ the exhibit); the hypnotic kelp forest where silver fishes glide amongst swaying kelp; the daily feeding of the fishes in the I&J Predator Exhibit (15h00) and the African penguins in the Sappi River Meander Exhibit (11h30 and 14h30); and the touch pool where young and old alike can get their hands wet and touch and feel a variety of marine creatures.
Besides a myriad of spectacular exhibits, the Aquarium offers holiday activities including arts and crafts and puppet shows in the Afrisam Children’s Centre which overlooks a pool currently accommodating charismatic rockhopper penguins.
The Aquarium also indulges adventure seekers with opportunities to dive with ragged-tooth sharks, shoals of large predators, rays and a turtle in the I&J Predator Exhibit (minimum Discover Scuba qualification required) or with the silver fishes in the Kelp Forest Exhibit (Advanced divers).
For further information please contact the Two Oceans Aquarium on telephone 021-418-3823 or email aquarium@aquarium.co.za Photo: A giant bullfrog can be seen in Frogs-Beyond the Pond.
