"Is that a dinosaur?" - Beaty Biodiversity Museum UBC Overview and Tips

My feet compared to a dinosaur's

The Beaty Biodiversity Museum has got to be one of the coolest places to visit for both UBC students and the general public. From the outside, you can see this big blue whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling (or to some they think it's a dinosaur). I used to walk by here during the times I was doing my degree and I came in here a few times to check it out (it was free for students). However, it was hard to appreciate the things in here in its full entirety as a student as my priorities were dedicated to exams and graduating.

The big blue whale 

   I decided to come back here today as I saw a 2 for 1 deal on Groupon (UBC Alumni gets a 2 for 1 deal already). There was a "save 20%" deal on Groupon and I used Ebates so the total came to less than $12 for 2 people (which was roughly 75% off the regular price). I came here with my +1 as he loves animals (and I do too, but I'm a nerd and loves everything) and we were in the area for a meeting.
    The museum itself isn't super fancy, but it has all the bells and whistles a museum should have. There is a mini-gift shop, a small cafe (which I believe is closed) and an admissions desk at the top level. Upon showing my groupon, the volunteer at the admissions desk checked it off of my app.
No flash photography, foods or drinks are allowed in the museum. After entering the lower level through a ramp, you enter the main hall area where there are some displays and the entrance to the theatre. Inside the theatre, they feature a documentary on how the big blue whale skeleton was found. The movie wasn't playing when we were here.
    After walking past the main hall, you will see rows upon rows of black shelves (I am not sure what you would call them... maybe cabinet? We'll call them shelves - lack of a better term). There were over 30 rows of shelves. It looked sort of like a library at a glance. However, once we walked into the first row, it was impressive to see the displays. The very first row is a display of animals that went through taxidermy encased in glass cabinets. There were so many of them. For each animal class, there were numerous species in display. From goats to jaguars to different kinds of birds, insects and their eggs. This row was mainly an overview row I think. However, I genuinely enjoyed the captions that the animals had.

  We decided to start from the back and work our way forward. The very back section of the museum contained fossils of plants. If you keep walking into the sections, there are displays in the ground (such as a dinosaur feet). While we were comparing our feet to the dinosaur's, a volunteer was pushing a cart with a bunch of bird feet. It wasn't encased in anything, so we decided to take a closer look. The volunteer also had pictures (like full body ones) of each bird and she was showing us how birds that prey have clawed feet while birds that swim would have webbed feet. Looking at the wide variety of specimens of different bird legs was interesting as it painted a story on how animals adapted to their environments.
    During our conversation with the volunteer, I asked her if many students visited here. To my surprise, she said no. She was mentioning how ignorant some students were and how some students actually asked her if the big blue whale skeleton over the main hall was a dinosaur. I had a chuckle when I heard that (the skeleton didn't even have legs, how can it be a dinosaur?!). She also referred us to the hands on area hidden at the back and how we can feel some of the taxidermy animals.
    The hands on area was like a classroom. Before you are able do anything hands on, the volunteers would ask you to wash your hands (understandably, as you are touching fragile specimens). In the back of this hands on section were cabinets. When we were here, a volunteer had one open and inside were jars of animals placed in formaldehyde. My eyes grew wide open as I started to question what they were. Before we knew it, we were in a deep conversation with the volunteer and he opened every cabinet to show us everything they had. There were very interesting things from road kill (like skunks) to turtles, fossils and more. They even had taxidermy of many types of birds (they didn't do the eye part too well on this part, but it was cool to see none-the-less.

The hands on section of the museum

    Overall, there is more to the experience than I can write with this post. There are so many different animals and things you can learn about the living world here. From the animal kingdom to the fungus, there are specimens from all 5 kingdoms of the living world. Moreover, this place is actually used by researchers, so it is interesting to know that by going to the museum, you are contributing to research efforts as well as recognizing the work that many people put in, in the field of life sciences. Whether it's kids young and old, I definitely recommend coming here. The amount of things you learn is well worth it.

Tips:

One of the sections inside the rows upon rows of displays.

• If you want to save money, take public transit (remember, it's $1.75 per every half hour of parking at UBC, and no there's no combo pricing for anywhere under 6 hours)
• Students, faculty and staff go in for free, alumni can get in with a 2-for-1 deal.
• If you are not associated with UBC, you can get a Groupon for a 2-for-1 (they are not always available, however when the Groupon is available and you combine it with a Groupon sale) and then a further 6% off with Ebates.
• Website: http://beatymuseum.ubc.ca/