Saturday, March 08, 2008

A Marmots' Swiss Paradise

An international Marmot museum and zoo? In Switzerland? And it's a tourist attraction??

Right.

Swear to God. And here's the best part: it's really well done!

Five species of marmots from Russia and from North America are visible in "huge parks" of 400 square meters, and tourists can observe the marmots underground by going down human-sized marmot holes themselves (actually large corrugated pipes with windows cut into their side.


The site is oriented to the south for maximum solar exposure and deeper dens are dug for winter hibernation. The marmots can be observed in their burrows thanks to special cameras, microphones and temperature sensors. No visible light is allowed in the burrows, so the marmots live in total obscurity and seeming privacy, as they would in the wild.


There are exhibits on threatened marmot species, marmot anatomy, marmot environment and habits, marmots and men, and hibernation, as well as others.

Fencing goes all the way down to bedrock where it is anchored, and it is electrocuted on top in order to keep out lynx and fox.

Click here to check out the web site.

This is the kind of thing two people might come up with after four hours of hard drinking at a bar, but the Swiss actually built the thing. What a wacky and wonderful world.
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