By CONNOR KEATING
Tiger Media Network
Every year, the Sternberg Museum of Natural History hosts a variety of events, and over the course of this semester, the museum has a full calendar.
Currently, the museum has a new temporary exhibit on display that went up on January 31 called “Water’s Extreme Journey.”
“[The exhibit is kind] of like a maze and a quiz combined to better understand the importance of clean water as a resource and as a major component of life on this planet,” said Zoological Collections Manager Jackson Roberts.
The exhibit will be open at Sternberg until May 12.
Alongside the exhibit, the City of Hays will be hosting its annual World Water Day, which is typically held in mid-March. According to Naturalist and Education Manager Alicia Gaede, Sternberg is partnering with the city for World Water Day.
“We are partnering up with them this year, and we do have this water exhibit,” she said. “So there’s a poster contest, all that good stuff, water droplet mascot will be here. He’s always a hoot.”
After “Water’s Extreme Journey,” the museum will be unveiling a new exhibit entitled “Animal Armor.”
“We are then rolling in a new exhibit right after that called Animal Armor, which is about the evolution of and variation in armor that we see in the animal kingdom,” Roberts said. “So everything from armadillos to the ankylosaurs.”
Sternberg will also celebrate Darwin Day on Sunday by featuring a temporary exhibit that will be up until the end of the semester.
“Darwin Day is the one that’s coming up fast,” Roberts said. “What’s going to be a big part of that is that’s being organized by our current interim curator of paleontology, Amanda Peng. She and her students, as well as some of our zoology curators, will have tables showing how evolution is studied here and how it ties all the way back to the original theory proposed by Charles Darwin.”
Roberts also mentioned rumors that Darwin himself may be wandering the museum that day, and if asked a question, visitors may receive a prize.
Sometime in March, the museum will have a “Free Day at the Museum” to celebrate the museum’s birthday. However, the exact date is up in the air due to the exact date being on a Thursday, and the expected Sunday it’d normally be on is the start of spring break.
During spring break, the museum will have its “Animal Encounters,” where guests can get up close and personal with some of the live animals the museum has.
“With regular admissions, 10 o’clock in the morning we bring animals out in the discovery room and whoever shows up gets to meet some animals,” Gaede said.
Later in the spring on April 19, the museum will be having its “Easter Extravaganza” which Gaede says is usually a pretty large event for younger kids. Also in April, the Kansas Audubon Society will be booking out the museum for Lek Trek, which is the annual Prairie Chicken Festival.
“In west Kansas, we actually have some of the last known populations in the state of Greater and Lesser Prairie Chickens,” Roberts said. “And that time of year in April, they do what’s called lekking, and so what this conference is, it’s for anyone, there is an entrance fee organized by the Kansas Audubon Society, but in addition to hearing some talks and meeting some biologists who work with these incredible birds, in the mornings there are excursions out to known lekking sites.”
Roberts explained that leks are when male prairie chickens compete for females who are hiding along the leks. The display includes puffing out their vocal sacs and dancing for attention.
“It’s a pretty special bit of natural history that occurs in our backyard that Kansas Audubon has access to,” he said.
Connor Keating is a senior at Fort Hays State University, studying Natural Resources.