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Desert-Jungle Mania Goes On

SHARJAH — A look-alike of the Sahara Desert in North Africa, with some rare desert animals in transparent enclosures, draws huge crowds.

A few metres away from the spectators, tiny mice are noticeably scurrying out of a hole in sand on which their cage is mounted. As swiftly as they can, they run into the hallway down to the basement where they are caught again and brought back to their little cozy home.

This is what shoppers have been witnessing since May 15 at a mall in Sharjah. For a month, people can get close to several rare desert and jungle animals while shopping around, and photograph them as well.

The exhibition is the second of its kind after Megasaurus, which involved briefings and educational tours around the mall’s exhibit of dinosaurs, in
March 2007. The Mega Mall Marketing Manager, Vanessa Danna Lazatin-Steiner, told Khaleej Times that the mall being part of the community in Sharjah and a regular venue for community awareness campaigns by the government, has been organising several projects aimed at social responsiveness.

“This time, we would like to educate our customers about the wonder and the importance of our environment through this live exhibition of jungle and desert animals. We believe that there is no better way to learn than to experience the real thing,” she said.

On the ground floor of Mega Mall, there are two distinct courts – the water court where the huge skeletal remains of a dinosaur towers over the live exhibits of rare species of animals,
reptiles and birds.

On the other side of the spacious ground, children as young as two years crowd the Sahara Desert Court exhibiting live creatures that they could get to see only in museums and zoos in UAE.

From pythons of all colours and sizes to iguanas, scorpions, squirrels and desert doves, visitors can feed, watch and take photographs with any of the 150 species of jungle and desert animals.

Dubbed as Desert-Jungle Mania at Mega Mall, the animal exhibition demonstrates to shoppers, particularly school children the unique replica of the wildlife in the desert and in the forest, and for enthusiasts to take a giant step in discovering amazing facts about these creatures.

Ahmad Zaki, vice-president and general manager of Mega Mall, said the number of mall customers reaches an average of 30,000 on weekdays and 35,000 on weekends.

lily@khaleejtimes.com

what all you can expect here

- some 150 desert and jungle animals on show at the Mega Mall from May 15 to June 15

- the exhibition titled Desert-Jungle Mania is for free for all, particularly children whose parents are interested in providing them a once-in-a-lifetime experience of feeding and touching some of the rarest species as well as learning how these animals live.

- qualified and professional staff assist the visitors who want to touch and feed the animals.

- all the reptiles, parrots and mammals are harmless and healthy.

- included in the exhibition are dwarf goat, cheese desert mice, leopard gecko, Nile crocodile, Chinese squirrels, Burmese python, rose hair spider, Emperor scorpion, blue and gold macaw, blue fronted amazons and desert dove red iguana.