Weekend Programme - Signs of Change

Let your fingers do the talking in our new Search Centre sign language programme! New Zealand sign language has been recognised as an official language since 2006, so zip your lips and learn to communicate in a whole new way!

Every Saturday and Sunday during June and July and daily during the school holidays 2.30pm, Search Centre, FREE!

Explorer Backpacks - Explore the Otago Museum with these exciting Backpacks! Equipped with an Explorer’s handbook, ‘treasure map’, torch, magnifying glass, measuring tape and your own Explorer’s notebook, you will have everything you need for a great adventure. Let your imagination run wild!

Available every day from the Search Centre, 10am - 4.30pm, FREE to use within the Museum.

Curiosity Case
The Curiosity Case is located in the middle of the floor space in the Search Centre and contains two mysterious objects. The first object is there for a couple of months for you to try and identify. It will then become the second object in the case (with labels explaining exactly what it is) and it is replaced by a new mysterious object. Click here to see if you think you can identify the mysterious object in the Curiosity Case.

Question and Answer Board
At the Search Centre, we have a board where you can post curly questions and try to answer other people’s questions. Here are a few we have had lately, with answers from the public and Museum staff. If you can think of a better answer than the ones we have here, or have a question of your own, come in and visit us at the Search Centre, or email us at searchcentre@otagomuseum.govt.nz.

Q: What is the longest distance a frog can leap?

A: Frogs are able to leap over 20 times their own length! The longest frog jump on record was an incredible 10 metres 4 inches, made by a frog named Santjie in South Africa.

Q: Can you make cats vegetarian?

A: It is indeed possible to gradually convert a pet cat to a vegetarian diet. However, it is important to remember that cats are natural carnivores, and are likely to seek meat from other sources if fed a vegetarian diet, ie. by hunting birds and small rodents. There are certain nutrients in meat that cats require to stay healthy, and these can not be obtained from plant foods. These nutrients include taurine (for healthy eyesight), arachidonic acid and vitamins A and B12.

Q: What is the world's most dangerous snake?

A:  The most dangerous snake in the world is not necessarily the most venomous. Some of the snakes that have the most toxic venom do not often bite people, so the most dangerous ones are those that actually kill the most people. The Asian cobra and Russell's viper are the two species of snake that kill the largest number of people every year, and are therefore the most dangerous.

Q: Do insects poo and pee?

A: To some extent, all insects 'poo' and 'pee', but not in the same way as humans! Insects that live on land usually need to save as much water as they can in their tiny bodies so that they don't dry out. For this reason, they don't urinate as such, but rather expel a waste called uric acid, which doesn't contain much water. Insects do not have kidneys, so instead produce their waste with organs called malpighian tubules. Uric acid and ammonia are dumped into the insect's hind gut and mixed with other waste products instead of travelling out the body through separate tubes.

The Weird and the Wonderful
The Search Centre is the place where people bring things in for identification. That means all sorts of weird and wonderful objects and creatures arrive for inspection.

This is a sternum of a juvenile New Zealand fur seal (Actocephalus forsteri). It was found on the stony beach near the mouth of the Waihou River in South Canterbury. The brown flexible structures are the cartilaginous links between the sternum and the ribs. The ribs of a fur seal are attached to the vertebrae (or backbones) and the sternum (or "breast bone") is on the underside of the animal. The cartilage pieces are long and flexible. This allows expansion and contraction of the seal’s chest cavity as it takes in large volumes of air for diving. The "fuzzy" loose stringy bits are pieces of seaweed.