By Collette on 01-Sep-10 13:27

Hank the sturgeon has a brand new tank! For the past few months he's been hanging out in our office in a plain old boring box-shaped tank.

See, boring:

Hank is in the background there, in his boring old tank.

By the way, who are those other folks and what are they holding? On the left is Jared from Wascana Centre Authority, and he's holding a Short-eared Owl named Poa. Short-eared Owls are on the Special Concern list, meaning they're not endangered yet but really need our help to stay off that list. Next up you have Chad, our Workshops Coordinator, holding George the Burrowing Owl. George lives in Moose Jaw at the Saskatchewan Burrowing Owl Interpretive Centre (SBOIC), and he is on the endangered species list.

I took this picture quite a few months ago while Poa and Jared were in our office visiting Sheila, our Environmental Programs Coordinator. George is in the picture thanks to Janet, who used to work at SBOIC. She's a friend of mine who also used to occasionally work with us here at the Science Centre (Saskatchewan is a small place!), and since they happened to be in town that day doing some stuff at CTV, she thought she'd drop in for a hello. She also knows we are all nuts about George!

It was quite a momentus occasion having Poa and George in our office with Hank the sturgeon. Lake Sturgeon are just about to go on the endangered species list, so it was a rare thing to have three at-risk or endangered species in the office at once!

Speaking of Hank, check out his new digs!

Fancy! It gets even better. It's actually shaped like a donut, and kids can climb into the middle to have a look!

I asked those kids' mom if I could take photos of them, and she was just fine with that. We had quite a nice chat, actually. Turns out her older son went to our Mind-Boggling Body Summer Camp in July and loved it! She said she even wrote us a thank you letter because she was so impressed with the quality of the program and the way the Science Explorers managed the kids. She was also really happy that her son got to see Our Body: The Universe Within. It wasn't originally on the agenda, but she's glad it was added. Some people have wondered if young kids are okay with that exhibit. Yes! Definitely! She said her son had no problem with it whatsoever. (She did say that he got squeamish when dissecting the pig heart that the camp kids get to do. Poor guy!)

I also fit in the tank, so I took this little video for you:

Everyone says Hank seems so happy in his new tank. My reply has been, "How can you tell? He's a fish! It's not like he's smiling!" But it's true. He really does seem happier now.

Stay curious,
Collette

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