Pet peeves with sharks, stingrays
FAMILY FUN | Fear not critters' reputations at zoo's new exhibit
Family and children can pet live sharks and stingrays without getting their fingers bitten or stung at a new exhibit opening today at Brookfield Zoo.
The tropical-themed "Sharks! at Stingray Bay" has a 16,000-gallon saltwater tank with 28 inhabitants: nurse and white-spotted bamboo sharks, cownose and southern stingrays and horseshoe crabs. Visitors are allowed to bend over the pool edge and pet the animals. The exhibit also has an elevated platform along the poolfront so young children and those in wheelchairs have easy access.
(Jean Lachat/Sun-Times)
"These sharks are not the type people typically envision; they're not the great whites and pose no threat to people whatsoever," said Andre Copeland, interpretive programs manager for the zoo. "These sharks eat small shrimps, crabs, oysters and mollusks. They're not built to eat large mammals like humans.
"The white-spotted bamboo sharks and nurse sharks are extremely shy, gentle creatures, and they prefer to stay together in the center of the touch pool," said Copeland. "They often rest by the pool wall where the public can touch them, but we can't promise anything. It's up to them."
For additional safety, zookeepers trim the stingrays' barbs -- the whip-like tail parts that can sting -- in a painless process that is similar to trimming human fingernails. Sharks and stingrays are members of the vertebrate class Chondrichthyes, a group of fish with characteristics such as jaws, paired fins and skeletons made of cartilage.
"We want to give people the chance to come in close contact with these amazing animals and in doing so build a connection with animals they might not see unless they visit places like the Gulf of Mexico or the East Coast," Copeland said.
The exhibit runs through Labor Day. General zoo admission is $11; $7 for seniors and kids 3 to 11 years; free for those and under. Tickets to "Sharks! at Stingray Bay" cost $2 more (free for those 2 and under). The zoo is at 8400 31st St. in Brookfield. For more information, call (708) 485-2200; www.brookfieldzoo.org.
