Auckland Zoo was at Auckland Live's Summer in the Square on Sunday December 17th - where we spoke about really BUG things!
We brought two special guests with us, Te Papa’s ‘Bug Man’ and entomologist Dr Phil Sirvid and our own ectotherms team leader Don McFarlane.
Our guests joined in 95bFM's Kids' Show live broadcast from the square with bFM host Lee where they played the 'What am I?' game. Our wonderful winner Jacob from Titirangi guessed correctly with 'katipo spider' and took home a Bug Lab pass, spider soft toy and two educational bug books! Jacob is nine and a half and is a very avid bug hunter. We also spotted two more bug enthusiasts in the crowd - brothers Judd and Alex Smith, who received some awesome spider face paint!
Comedian Tom Sainsbury took over the main stage at 11am to chat with Phil about our upcoming exhibition Bug Lab, developed by Te Papa and Weta Workshop, the creators of the ground-breaking Gallipoli exhibition. Next, Don spoke with Tom all about Auckland Zoo's breed and release programme in partnership with the Department of Conservation for New Zealand's precious native insect the wētāpunga.
