After my experience at RECHARGER/Unwind, I headed out to Olympic Park to check out the Montreal Biodôme, not to be confused with Montreal Biosphere.
The Montreal Biodôme is one of four attractions located at Espace pour la vie, or the Space of Life, the largest natural science museum complex in Canada. The other three are the Montreal Insectarium, Montreal Botanical Garden, and the Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium.
The Montreal Biodôme is not a zoo per se, but rather, five neat ecosystems under one roof, where you can learn about animal and plant species in a faithfully reproduced “natural” environment.
The five habitats are:
- Tropical rainforest – Biodôme’s largest ecosystem where you can see parrots, an alligator-like animal called a caiman, golden lion tamarins, callimicos, capybaras, anacondas, and bats
- Gulf of St. Lawrence – this ecosystem features underwater life.
- Laurentian maple forest – home to animals found in the Quebec forest, I spied otters, frogs, and turtles. I was not able to see the porcupine or the even harder to spot, lynx.
- Labrador coast – here you will find puffins! So many puffins.
- Sub-arctic islands – penguins. There are four types: king penguin, gentoo penguin, northern rockhopper penguin, and macaroni penguin. Say wha? And to give visitors that arctic feeling, there’s even an ice tunnel to walk through.
Although the animals are obviously the main reason why people visit, it’s easy to marvel at the environment too, whether it’s the lush tropical vegetation, palm trees, sea lyme grass, deciduous (birch, maple) and coniferous (fir, cedar) trees, and more.
What’s neat is that you can visit the Montreal Biodôme and experience summer like conditions in the dead of winter. Or in my case, get a brief respite from the oppressive heat and humidity outside by cooling down in 2-5C polar conditions inside.
I did enjoy walking through the various ecosystems, but heads up, due to the nature and mission of the facility, there are a ton of families around. And even though the Montreal Biodôme is sizeable, there’s lots of tiny humans running around, touching things and yelling with delight.
This was my first time sharing a space with so many people and children since the pandemic started, so it was a bit jarring. And especially as mask restrictions have been lifted. Even though it’s hard to socially distance here, I’m triple vaccinated and was masked up, so any jitters I felt subsided as I went through the spaces.
You might want to avoid the Biodôme if you’re still not comfortable being around people. But hopefully that doesn’t stop you. With precautions and knowing what to expect, an afternoon at the Montreal Biodôme can turn out to be quite the enjoyable time.
View more photos of Montreal on my Flickr album, and IG Stories. Feel free to follow me on Instagram too!
Hours:
9am-6pm Mon-Sun
Address:
4777 Pierre-de Coubertin Ave, Montreal
GPS coordinates: 45.56200, -73.55002
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