16 Aug, 2013
Ottawa Giveaway alert: a family pass to see The Hidden Life of Ants
Posted by andrea tomkins in: Fishbowl patrons|Giveaways and product reviews
Have you been to the Canadian Museum of Nature lately? (FYI the Museum is Fishbowl patron and a great member of the Ottawa community if you didn’t already know.) :)
There’s some great stuff going on there right now. My top two picks: (1) The Edward Burtynsky exhibition, which I wrote about here. It’s only on until September 2 and you MUST catch it before it’s gone. (2) Mark W. Moffet’s photography exhibit called Farmers, Warriors, Builders: The Hidden Life of Ants. On loan from the Smithsonian, this unique exhibition features 39 large-format images from Moffett, who the National Geographic Society describes as “the Indiana Jones of entomology.”
It’s easy to understand why, with stunning images like this one:
The Hidden Life of Ants is jam-packed with all kinds of fascinating information about how ants work, hunt, live and communicate.
- Ever see a trail of ants leading into your cupboard? (Eep. I have.) That’s the work of pheromones. The workers in larger ant societies commonly lay down a trail of pheromones marking the path between food and home. With enough traffic, these trails sometimes develop into more durable systems, much like our highways
- Ant colonies, whether large or small, are extended families, with one or several mothers (the queens) and many sisters (workers and soldiers). Males are few and short-lived; they die soon after leaving the nest to mate with a virgin queen from another nest. This queen will then start her own colony.
- Did you know that ants from the same nest smell alike? Whenever ants meet, they sweep their antennae over each other to identify one another. If their scents are unfamiliar, the workers will either run away or go on the attack.
- Human societies may send their young men to war, but weaver ants rely on the oldest members of their all-female society—their old ladies—to defend their territory.
There are also two live ant colonies in the exhibition as well. You can read the back story about that right here. (It was a long journey!)
Anyway, yes. Cool stuff!
This giveaway is for a family pass to the Museum of Nature plus (PLUS if you’re keen) a family pass to a live animal show that features unusual critters from around the world:
Come Talk to the Animals
Sunday, August 25
Shows are at 11 am, 12:30 pm, 2:00 pm
Meet Winston the Wallaby, native to Australia; Shakespeare the Crested Porcupine, native to Africa; and Butter the Angora Bunny, native to Turkey!
Interested? Read on!
- This giveaway is for one family pass to the Museum as well as the live animal show as described above.
- In order for your entry to qualify, please leave a comment below. That’s it!
- This giveaway is void in Quebec, sorry.
- If you can’t post your comment for whatever reason you can email it to me for posting at andrea at quietfish dot com. Please note, I cannot be responsible if your entry is misdirected or gets stuck in my Spam folder!
- One entry per person please! We want lots of people to have the opportunity to win.
That’s it! I will draw one name using Random.org at noon EST on August 23, 2013. The winner will have to pick their passes up at the Museum. Over to you. Good luck!