The Aquarium Of The Americas
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Aquarium Exhibit Highlights

FROGS!

An new exhibit based on an old favorite.
FROGS—Beyond Green has a new home at Audubon Aquarium of the Americas! Located on the second floor near the Sea Otters this popular exhibit features milk frogs, poison dart frogs and other favorite amphibians—in brand-new habitats made beautiful with orchids and exotic plants. Lots of interactive fun, too!

Adventure Island

An exhibit designed for fun and exploration, the Island was constructed recently with the generous donation received from the Tzu Chi buddhist foundation.
Adventure Island is an action-packed interactive play zone designed to give everyone—from the small fry to the captain—a day of fun and learning. Admission to Adventure Island is free with paid Aquarium admission.

This new adventure offers exhibits to crawl on, climb in, sit on and touch. The highlight of the exhibit is a 2,600-gallon pool where visitors can touch the cownose rays. You can also help feed them during their feeding times at 11:30 am and 2:30 pm! To feed the stingrays, you must purchase a stingray feeding token and bring it to the stingray pool during feeding time. Tokens are $2 each and may be purchased at the treasure chest gift shop in front of the Adventure Island exhibit. Tokens are one per person and are limited to 15 tokens per feeding.

“We want to continue to offer new adventures for our guests. As we work together to rebuild our city, we need places that offer us an opportunity to play together,” said Karyn Noles Bewley, Senior Vice-President and Managing Director of the Aquarium.

Sea Otters

The Aquarium is home to two Southern sea otters, Buck and Emma. The Southern Sea Otter is most commonly found in waters of the north Pacific or central California—a perfect habitat for these animals who like to spend most of their day playing in the kelp forests. Our two sea otters came from Montery Bay Aquarium in California when they became unable to live on their own in the wild.

SEA OTTER FEEDINGS: 2:00 p.m. daily!

Penguins

The penguin colony at the Aquarium features two species of warm-water penguins: African black-footed penguins and Rockhopper penguins. Don’t be surprised that there’s no snow in their habitat—there are 17 species of penguin in the world and just two of them live in the Antarctic. African black-footed penguins (right) are the most numerous penguins in our exhibit and many of the birds were born there! You can easily spot the Rockhopper penguins in the exhibit because they have orange feet and bright yellow tufts of feathers above their eyes.

PENGUIN FEEDINGS: 10:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. daily!

The entire penguin colony survived Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 and was evacuated to Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. On May 22, 2006 they returned home with the sea otters safe on the wings of FedEx to Audubon Aquarium of the Americas.

Horses and Dragons from the Sea

The Aquarium's seahorse gallery offers interesting facts and seahorse encounters with incredible creatures like the seadragons whose flowing appendages conjure thoughts of mystical sea monsters. There are only 32 known species of seahorses and they live in some of the world's most threatened habitats—as their habitats decline, so do their populations. The Aquarium's husbandry is working to ensure the survival of these amazing animals through its own breeding programs, and cooperation with an international conservation team called Project Seahorse.

White Alligator

One of the most unusual residents of the Aquarium lives in the Mississippi River Gallery—"Spots" the white alligator. One of just 18 rare white alligators found in a Louisiana swamp in 1987, Spots is white but he is not albino. He is LEUCISTIC; a gene mutation gives him his white color and steely blue eyes.

Spots and his siblings (all male, by the way) probably wouldn’t have lived long in the wild since their white coloring wouldn’t camouflage them from other animals anxious to dine on the tiny hatchings. As goodwill ambassadors from Louisiana, Spots and his brothers are celebrities the world over! They’ve appeared on many news and entertainment programs including the Tonight Show, CNN, Today Show, Nashville Network, and CBS Morning News.

Caribbean Reef

Discover the creatures of North and South America—underwater! Enter the Caribbean Reef through the Aquarium’s 30-foot-long aquatic tunnel where you’ll lurk with creatures of all shapes and sizes, surrounded by 132,000 gallons of water. Be entranced by the creatures of the deep, and meet our resident mermaid, Shelley!