Results tagged “sheddaquarium”

Some joyful news from the Shedd Aquarium where two beluga whales, 23-year-old Puiji and 20-year-old Naya, are each pregnant with baby belugas. Fellow beluga whale Naluark made like Shawn Kemp and is responsible for both pregnancies. It's only a matter of time before Kirk and Spock swipe all three for the benefit of mankind's future. [Tribune]

         

Since 1991, the Oceanarium at the Shedd aquarium has been entertaining us with it's unique blend of an indoor-outdoor environment, cute sea mammals and a gorgeous view of the lake. Since September, visitors to the Shedd have found the Oceanarium closed and undergoing a massive renovation. The Oceanarium is schedule to re-open in May, and we got a sneak peak inside. Some of these photos are current construction photos, while others are renderings of what the interior will look like when work is finished. Some of new features will include:

The Shedd Aquarium, as part of their Community Discount Days, is offering free admission for the rest of this week! From February 16th through the 20th, visitors get in to the main exhibit galleries free . Entrance to the Wild Reef exhibit (which is excellent, by the way) is available at a discounted rate. We're guessing that the Shedd might be trying to drive up their attendance, since the Oceanarium is closed until June of this year. In combination with the Art Institute letting visitors in for free every day in February, it’s a very good month for museum-goers on a budget.

In spite of the current recession, Chicago's museums are still managing to bring in a healthy number people. Total attendance in 2008 at the city's top 10 "major cultural attractions" was only off by one percent for a total of 7.7 million. The Shedd Aquarium saw a drop of seven percent, but was still had the highest overall attendance at 1.9 million; The Museum of Science & Industry had a larger drop at 15 percent, but was second overall with 1.4 million. In spite of these drops, the eight other attractions saw increases. The Art Institute of Chicago drew 1.4 million for third place overall and the Chicago History Museum saw a healthy 22 percent increase in visitors for a total of 266,000. The overall attendance on "free days" also saw a hefty increase of over 15 percent.

Another reason to never go swimming in any body of water in the area: Joliet's D.J. Johnston caught what may be a red-bellied piranha while fishing in the Des Plaines River last week. An expert at the Shedd Aquarium, who studied a photograph of the fish, agreed the fish is likely a piranha as Johnston claims the fish has pointed teeth. Shedd spokeswoman Melissa Kruth says the fish was likely a pet that was liberated by an irresponsible pet owner. "It was probably in someone's aquarium and they let it go...It makes an invasive species. It's bad." Thanks for making us feel better, Melissa. Seriously. We're not ones to get paranoid, but we remember that segment from Planet Earth all too well and piranhas (like the Wu-Tang Clan) ain't nothin' to fuck with. Don't believe us? Check this out (not for the faint of heart).

Happy Birthday, Cynthia!

This simulated vintage poster, inspired by the Shedd Aqarium, is an original design by the artist and is the first in a planned series that will include the Field Museum and the Adler Planetarium. Created here in Chicago, elements of the piece are hand-applied on canvas panel board, fashioned and textured with layered strips of antique paper to give it its old-timey feel. Want it? Buy it!

The Shedd Aquarium announced to day it has completed a successful transfer of seven whales and four dolphins to the Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration in Connecticut. The reason for the move was to prepare the Shedd for a renovation of its Oceanarium. The whales will eventually be integrated into Mystic's existing whale exhibit. “We are pleased that all of our animals are in excellent health and are quickly adjusting to their new temporary surroundings,’’ said Ken Ramirez, senior vice president of animal collections and animal training at the Shedd. The Shedd also sent 12 staff members to Connecticut to help care for the whales and dolphins, who spent most of the trip comfortably on a FedEx plane. No word on if the staff members were shipped overnight or 2-day.

The Shedd Aquarium is closed until Friday so museum staff can "polish new programs, reconfigure guest amenities and make final preparations for the Oceanarium renovation." Fans of aquatic life probably recall that the Oceanarium will remain OOC for the next nine months or so, but the aquarium will reopen September 5, and general admission will be free through September 9. Time to conquer my fear of fish! Just kidding, I'll never get over that. [Shedd]

Who would have thunk the Shedd Aquarium could be seen as a viable jazz venue, but it becomes one every summer due to its annual Jazzin’ at the Shedd program. Every Thursday, local jazz bands play on Shedd’s north terrace and inside at the Caribbean Reef, providing a musical backdrop for the museum’s fishy splendors*. Drinks and snacks are also available for purchase.

North Carolinian experimental indie kids Annuals are on nature kick as they tour in support of their major label debut EP, Wet Zoo (Sony/Canvasback). The youngsters' catchy brand of loud-soft, organic-synthetic exuberance made them blog darlings in the Internet-fruitful musical year of 2006, and Annuals' exploration of the weird trappings of youth through a blend of rural-ish folk-pop and symphonic studio bombast continues on Wet Zoo.

Drew Peterson urned himself in on felony weapons charges today. He's been charged with knowingly possessing a rifle whose barrel is less than 16 inches long, which is illegal, but Peterson's lawyer says Peterson was a cop at the time the gun was seized, and police weapons are exempt from the law. Police seized 11 of Peterson's guns back in November, so the lag in arrest time is "suspicious," according to Joel Brodsky, Peterson's lawyer. [S-T]

We've never been huge fans of the phrase “Chicago has two seasons: winter and construction." We prefer to think of it as winter and awesome or winter and street-festivals, but we also can’t help but agree.

The Shedd Aquarium is free through Friday, and Chicagoist can’t think of a more mesmerizing place to take your kids.

Two weeks ago, in what was considered a rare act of humility, Japanese Emperor Akihito apologized to his countrymen, taking responsibility for a bluegill infestation that's wreaked havoc on Japan's ecosystem by bringing home a pair of the fish from a trip to the States nearly fifty years ago. "Bluegills are the ones I brought back from the U.S. some 50 years ago and donated to a Fisheries Agency research institute", Akihito said. "In those...

Busy day for local museums: the Field Museum is raising its admissions prices, and the Shedd Aquarium is looking to expand its office space. Adler Planetarium? Anything? No? Shedd officials say their 300 employees are cramped, thus an additional 24,000 square feet of workspace, plus "a ground level terrace on the north side of the structure, build another elevator and upgrade its food-service kitchen." The proposed addition apparently wouldn't really affect how the Oceanarium...

No repartee this week, all business. - We've received e-mails from concerned people and had to check it out for ourselves, and it looks as though Cereality at 110 South Wacker has closed down, only a couple years after Chicagoist (among other media) made a big fuss about its opening. There's even a "For Rent" sign in its front window. This kind of reaffirms our faith in the human race; if people won't pay $4.50...

The Agudas Achim North Shore Congregation in Uptown was robbed late Friday of computers, audio-visual equipment and donated food on Friday. This is just one of several crimes committed at the synagogue in the last year. We're not sure how we feel about this ... Wendy's International will begin selling breakfast in Chicago, part of a national expansion into the breakfast market, the Dublin, Ohio-based hamburger chain said last week. Steve Irwin is helping...

Qannik, a six-year-old beluga whale arrived at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium early Sunday after a flight on a chartered military transport plane from his previous home at Chicago's John G. Shedd Aquarium. A deadly shooting on a CTA bus is now the inspiration for a new proposed federal law to create a national database of all gun owners to keep guns out of the wrong hands. He didn't have a peg leg. There's...

We don't search YouTube very often. To be honest, we're not even sure if we can be considered part of the YouTube generation, or, you know, whatever Time magazine is calling us this week. We do, however, think it is actually pretty cool that the site can bring things that may not have been so accessible before to anyone with a computer, like funny videos of animals at the zoo.

This Week's Theme: Rise and Fall Fred Solomon Would Agree, Because He Likes Fire: We noticed that Kohan, the teppen grill and sushi bar on Maxwell Street, is expanding. They recently bought an empty space next to their current location and will be building it out. We also hear that once the expansion is complete, they'll focus more on the teppen grill side of the menu, including tableside teppen service. Chicagoist is pleased by this,...

We heard somewhere that penguins are America's new favorite animal (and that Americans are now hunting bald eagles). It had something to do with family values and monogomy, apparently. And animated movies. And Morgan Freeman's voice. Anyway, we obviously aren't holding that against them because when we heard penguin mating season at the Shedd Aquarium has commenced, we peed our pants a little with glee. The two types of penguins at the Shedd — the...

The Shedd Aquarium announced yesterday that Mauyak, one of its four female Beluga whales, is pregnant again. This is her fourth pregnancy since arriving at Shedd in 1997, however, she has only given birth successfully to one calf, Qannik, who is now 7. Shedd has had three Beluga calf births in all, including Bella, who was born to Puiji last summer.

About an hour after our post on Chicago theater coping with the theater of the gridiron, we discovered the Tribune’s list of Super Sunday alternatives. We won’t even pretend that any of these events are more momentous or worth your time than the biggest Bears game since MTV was cool. But we still think they’re better than hearing yet another story about South Beach “sabor.”

With the second Body Worlds exhibit expected to attract the same droves of visitors to the Museum of Science and Industry as the first installment did, everybody seems to be noticing something — museums are cool. And because museums are cool, people brought attendance to them in Chicago up 6 percent from 2005 to 2006.

In order to allow for better preparation for your weekend jaunts, we are, from now on, going to combine our "what to do" posts into one article on Saturday mornings. We figured, no better weekend to start than when 90% of the city will be watching the Bears kick ass on Sunday anyway. Be sure to send us any information on events, we can search for things all we want, but you are the ones...

If you don’t hear much from the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau in the next couple of months, don’t be alarmed. The bureau, which drives sales for McCormick Place and Navy Pier, is on the road, trying to find work. It will be stopping in 10 cities to try to convince corporate and association meeting planners to book their conventions here. Why all the palm-pressing? "Our new emphasis is back-to-the-basics, face-to-face sales and marketing,"...