Up-close inspection
‘Swarm’ exhibit offers up-close inspection of underwater creatures, insects, eels and mice
Eels are among about 1,000 creatures featured in the new ‘‘Swarm’’ exhibit at Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg, Tenn.
GATLINBURG, Tenn. — Dozens of adults and children dipped their hands into a large pool of water at Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies on a recent outing, inviting fish to nibble their fingers.
Hundreds of small swarming Doctor Fish, also called Garra rufa, nibbled visitors’ hands, cleaning them of dead skin. Some children screamed; some adults giggled at their free fish manicures.
“You put your hand in there and the fish nibble it,” said Ripley’s general manager Ryan DeSear. “You can always tell who hasn’t washed their hands” based on the fishes’ actions.
Doctor Fish are among the creatures in the Gatlinburg aquarium’s new exhibit, “Swarm.” At the aquarium through 2015, “Swarm” shows some 1,000 individual creatures from fish to bugs to eels to mice. Other creatures shown include Halloween crabs, fat black eels and dozens of floating blue blubber jellyfish.
Children lined up during a recent visit to crawl through tunnels and pop up in a dome in the middle of an exhibit of Alewife fish. A child-size tunnel leading to close-up views of the exhibit’s mice wasn’t nearly as popular.
“Swarm” also includes photographs and interactive panels. It got its name because of the survival strategies the featured animals use to live and thrive. The creatures often work as a large group — a swarm — to distribute decision making and to respond quickly to changes and risks.
The aquarium introduced “Swarm” with a lecture for media and invited guests this week by internationally known forensic anthropologist, author and retired University of Tennessee professor Dr. William Bass.
In an entertaining lecture accompanied by sometimes graphic photos, Bass discussed how insects such as blowflies and their maggots help determine when a person died. “We can go from what you and I are now to a complete skeleton in only 14 days, two weeks,” said Bass.
Bass also explained how he founded the internationally known UT Anthropological Research Farm or “Body Farm,” where human bodies placed in various controlled or natural situations are studied as they decay. The site has no phone, he said, joking, “Everybody’s dead.”
The wooden and chain-link fences and razor wire enclosing the site are there not for the dead.
“I’m not trying to keep my people in,” Bass said. “I’m trying to keep your people out.”
Ripley’s Aquarium is open daily in downtown Gatlinburg at traffic light five. Admission is $26.99 for adults, $15.99 for children.