See a sloth, touch a tarantula at Fernbank Museum’s newest exhibit

See a sloth, touch a tarantula, eye an iguana and come face-to-face with a ball python at Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s newest exhibit.

“Fernbank’s newest exhibition is ‘Survival of the Slowest,’ which explores some of the counter-intuitive adaptations that animals have,” Fernbank Museum’s Miranda Shealy told WSB-TV’s Nelson Hicks. “It explores things like being cold-blooded, being slow, and being small.”

They may be slow, they may be small, they may be weak, but they’ve evolved this way, and it’s those perceived disadvantages that have helped the animals survive.

The exhibit features 17 enclosures with about 30 animals.

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Fernbank Museum's Survival of the Slowest See a sloth... (Nelson Hicks)

“A lot of the programming that we do talks about conservation, responsible pet ownership, and why these guys are important in the world,” Emily Sain said.

Sain travels around with the exhibit, does some of the animal presentations, and cares for the creatures you’ll see on a visit.

She emphasizes people are scared of the wrong things.

“With tarantulas, especially, those are some of my favorites to do the myth-busting about,” Sain said. “In all of recorded human history, there has never been a human death from a tarantula bite because their venom is made more for the things they eat.”

Sain noted that even if someone gets bitten by one, which is very rare, it would feel like a bee sting.

Fernbank Museum's Survival of the Slowest (Fernbank Museum)

Nearly all of the animals in the exhibit are rescues. They’ve never been in the wild. From a ball python, which gets its name from coiling up into a ball when it feels threatened, to a sloth, there are interesting things to learn about each animal.

“In the wild, sloths are an ecosystem to themselves,” Sain said. “They actually have algae and some insects that grow in their fur that you won’t find anywhere else in the world. They’re also amazing as ambassador animals because everyone loves them. They are so cute.”

Admission to ‘Survival of the Slowest’ is included with Fernbank admission. It’s in Atlanta through Labor Day.

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