TIGERS The Exhibition: Tracking a Legend

So, before all the drama due to my mom's hospitalization, Theo, my niece Sibelle and my Dad and I all went down to South Street Seaport.  I hadn't been there in years, and Theo had never been there before. 

Located there at Pier 17, TIGERS The Exhibition: Tracking a Legend was a great way to celebrate my Dad's 60th birthday. 

The great thing about this exhibit is that it reaches those experiencing it in more than just a visual manner; the hands-on components of the exhibit are extremely inviting to children of all ages:

(Notice the older child in the black jacket looking on wishing he could get in on the action.  Notice how the younger children ignore him; kids can be so cruel.)

  

Besides being hands-on, TIGERS The Exhibition: Tracking a Legend is also "smells-on" as well; throughout the exhibit there are little stations where you can track the Tigers through scent.

Whoo-weee!  Those "Slide 'n Sniff" stations are potent, so sniff lightly.  I took a big ol' whiff, even after my niece told me how potent they were, and realized I don't listen to directions well.  Either that or a few doses of my allergy medicine has given me a brand new nose.

The 'Talk Like A Tiger' area was fun too. I didn't know that tigers actually communicate with each other verbally. In this section, after hearing a specific sound made either by a tiger, a tigress or a tiger cub (each sound specifiying a different meaning), you got to record yourself mimicking the sound and then they compare the two and let you know if you did a good job.  I didn't do so bad, if I do say so myself.

Another great component of the exhibit was the climbing wall.  The main point to this area is to teach team-building skills, but seeing as my back isn't in any shape to go climbing and there was no way on earth my Dad was going to go climbing, my niece was on her own.  She had a blast though!

My favorite part of the exhibit was the short film at the end, which is an excerpt of the full-length documentary made by Carol Amore, which created a sense of sympathy and concern for these amazing creatures.  The fact that there were once 40,000 tigers in the Indian jungle, and now there are less than 3,000 made me so very sad.  Exhibits like these are one way to galvanize people into making a difference and keeping tigers and other endangered animals from disappearing altogether.

This exhibit will run from now until January 15, 2011, so for those of you who do not live in New York City but plan on taking a trip here before mid-January 2011, make sure you visit it.  It is great for kids 3 and up (although Theo enjoyed it and he's only 2 and a half).  The older the child the more they will get out of its conservation significance, but even the youngest child will enjoy the hands-on (and smells-on) fun.  Go to http://www.tigersnyc.com/ for more information, or http://www.ticketmaster.com/ \ 800-745-3000 for tickets.