|
A young man wearing a colourful poncho and wide brimmed hat stands at the entrance. In his hands he holds several snakes.
While some people watch from afar, others, especially children, are keen to touch the snakes and be photographed holding them. And thus most visitors to the Global Village get enticed to venture into the Amazon Treasure Hunt.
Look and touch
While replicas of animals, birds and reptiles are available in many of the Global Village pavilions, the Amazon Treasure Hunt is a unique area where you can not only see but also touch and learn about living creatures from around the world.
"We wanted to add another facet to the Global Village by creating an area that represents the natural environment of our planet," says Zayed Hussain Dokal Al Blushi of Mirsal Design, who conceptualised this project.
To enter the lush green "Amazon forest" you must step over a glass covered pit that is home to a huge iguana.
The winding pathways then lead you past several glass enclosures and over some more pits housing a variety of snakes, scorpions, crabs, turtles, tortoises, lizards, hamsters, guinea pigs, fish and even baby crocodiles.
Menagerie
All these beautiful and interesting animals belong to Behrooz Bishara and have been flown in from his home in the US especially for display at the Global Village.
"I have always been fond of animals and keep my pet snakes and scorpions in my bedroom. But most children are scared of these creatures. Through this display I want them to get over their fear and learn to love and respect the animals.
"I will be here everyday to tell children about the natural habitats of these animals and their habits and get them to touch my pets and feed them to help them get rid of their fear," says Bishara.
Nature trail
The creatures on display include meat eating "Oscar" fish, fat tailed gekkos, a ball python with several tiny babies, Egyptian turtles, spotted "leopard" turtles and scorpions.
A huge plated lizard sleeps peacefully in its enclosure while a Russian hamster runs around in his den. The Savannah monster lizard and the rose hair spider look formidable but the green packman frog and silver crabs are tiny and cute.
The teen stone tortoise quietly nibbles on salad leaves, while the iguana and baby crocodiles look curiously at visitors.
You can also see the California king snake, which eats only eggs, the milky snake with bright orange, black and white stripes, the African bouofrog, dragon lizard, green iguana, rattle snakes and many other colourful creatures.
|
