Histoire naturelle

After our recent post about mouse-eating frogs, Burton Lim of the mammalogy department, one of the ROM’s bat experts, decided to fight back for the mammals. Behold Trachops cirrhosus, the frog-eating bat!

On June 11 and 12, the Keenan Family Gallery of Hands-on Biodiversity hosted our Bee Appreciation Day. Visitors from far and wide swarmed to the gallery’s beehive to get the buzz on the new bee colony from our very own Queen Bee, Janine, the gallery’s beekeeper (and I promise I will stop making bee puns now).

In the months ahead, we will look at some of the critters that share our spaces. We hope you will discover how to identify some of the insects and other arthropods that share your home and better understand these amazing creatures. The first bug we will examine are bed bugs (Cimex lectularius).

Due to the increase of bed bugs in Toronto over the past 10 years, ROM Entomology often receives questions from the public about these pests. However, please note that there are many types of insects found in homes and most of them are not bed bugs!

Can’t make it to the ROM? Make some popcorn, pick up one of these award-winning documentaries related to our current exhibitions and upcoming programs, and have a movie date with the ROM in your own livingroom!

Touched by Water, a documentary by Tamás Wormser, examines bathing rituals and our relationship with water worldwide. It was screened at the ROM this week as part of the day-long Sacred Waters Forum.

Deep in the darkest depths of the ROM’s herpetology department lives a miniature but fearsome predator: the Pacman frog. Yes, you read that correctly: the Pacman frog, or Ceratophrys ornata to those who study him and his voracious ways.

His name is Gracie, and he’s 17 years old (not bad for an amphibian!). To give you an idea of the small size and large appetite of this capable predator, we snapped some shots of him having lunch.