July 2007
On Safari in the Market:
Multi-Legged Menagerie at Seattle Bug Safari
If your child spends summers peering at the ground, looking at the tiny creatures we share the world with, the Seattle Bug Safari can be a great adventure for your budding entomologist. More than 40 species live at the bug zoo, including beetles, centipedes and millipedes, scorpions and several species of tarantula. Even the bug averse can spend an interesting afternoon here, as the residents are all safely behind glass -– close enough for scrutiny, but safely out of reach.
Tucked along the Pike Place Market Hill Climb, the Safari’s
entrance belies its exotic contents. Visitors enter through the gift shop,
which offers bugs in glass, in plastic and in poster form. However, once
they cross through the nondescript door at the back of the shop, the experience
is markedly different.
The Safari contains insect residents from around the world, lined up in
tanks and on shelves. Skittish visitors can linger by the relatively mild
green diving beetles and the blue death-feigning beetles, but the brave
can venture further in and see praying mantises, lash-tailed vinegaroon
scorpions and the Goliath bird-eating tarantula, which can grow as large
as 12 inches across and weigh as much as a quarter of a pound.
“Kids like to know about the most dangerous thing we have here,” says Brian Rolf, the proprietor, caretaker and guide. “They think it’s the tarantula because it’s big. Really, they’re harmless.” Most of the safari’s spikiest, scariest, most defensive-looking creatures have such disclaimers in their descriptions. The entire Safari is full of facts and tidbits, which kids and adults will be spouting for days after a visit. “We try to help with the fear of the unknown,” Rolf says.
Rolf has been interested in all things six-, eight-, and hundred-legged since he was a kid, and after an environmental science degree and a stint as a chemist, he found himself managing touring insect exhibits. “I said to my wife, ‘I’d love to do something like this in Seattle.’” He didn’t have a good answer to, “Why not?” so he sat down in a coffee shop and began to write the plan that led to the creation of the Seattle Bug Safari. It opened in February 2006.
Creating the plan took three years, but the legal issues required the most extensive research. The government has regulations for importers of insects, and the strictest rules are laid down by the USDA. The poisonous critters are behind glass, sure, but it’s the leaf-eaters and other destroyers of vegetation that must be displayed in the sealed lab at the back of the museum to prevent their escaping. For instance, the giant prickly stick insects may look fearsome sitting on Rolf’s shoulders, but they’re relatively harmless, unless you’re a plant – the bottom of their tank is covered in leafy carnage.
Rolf’s lab gives a glimpse into what being an
entomologist entails. The counters are covered in vials, containing newly
born insects. Shed skins of spiders are pinned in place, giving a vivid
display of how spiders grow. Vials, pins, forceps and other tools of the
trade are also available for sale in the gift shop so that kids can start
collecting when they get home.
Seattle writer Breanne Boland was relieved that Mr.
Rolf did not volunteer to be photographed with the Goliath bird-eating
spider.
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