Events

Animals in Action

After being active in our indoor adventure park upstairs, take a well-deserved break and join us in the Animal Discovery Room.  Learn more about how other animals stretch their kinetic abilities to not only run, jump and fly, but to skitter, slither, scale and swim as well.  Animal Discovery Room staff and interns will be available to introduce you to live critters and answer your animal locomotion questions.    

News

Sally the California Desert Tortoise has a new custom built home!  Thanks to generous contributions by Animal Discovery Room visitors our exhibits shop was able to create a new enclosure for him, complete with wheels, changable tubs of dirt and plants, and plenty of obstacles for him to traverse.  Now he will live in our main animal display room, along with our other scaley, furry and slimy animal friends.  Sally should be with us for at least another 60 years, so being able to give him a new space to enjoy will hopefully keep him busy for many years to come. 

Animal Adoptions and Donations

New: ADR Animals Up for Adoption!

There are a number of animals in the Animal Discovery Room that have served us well for many years and are now ready to retire from the world of education. In some cases, we have more of one species than we really need. We are looking for permanent homes for these wonderful animals. A small adoption fee helps ensure that each animal goes to a family that is ready to take on the responsibility of adoption. Below is a current list of adoptable animals as well as criteria for adopting them.

Criteria For Adopting

1. You must set up a time with the Animal Discovery Room Manager to talk about species-specific enclosure requirements and the animal's husbandry needs and history*. See Contact Us page for general contact information.
2. You must provide your own enclosure with proper set up and food for the animal prior to picking it up.
3. You must pay the $15.00 adoption fee for most animals. Mice are a $5.00 flat adoption fee, regardless of how many are adopted at once. Rats are $5.00 each.

*Note: Not all adoptable animals are recommended for households with small children.

Donations

Many of the animals in the Animal Discovery Room (ADR) have been donated by patrons of the Lawrence Hall of Science.

We do accept donations on occasion, but due to space limitations, we carefully screen all animals before they become a part of our teaching animal collection. ADR animals must be easily handled and even-tempered, since many are used in classes with children and members of the public.  We also occasionally accept used animal enclosures as long as they are in good condition.

We house more than 50 species of animals and attempt to maintain variation in the ADR when accepting animal donations. Please contact us if you are interested in donating your animal or used animal enclosure to find out if it meets all of our criteria. 

Animal Care

Special care is taken to ensure that all of our animals are housed correctly, with the proper substrate, heat, light, humidity, and enrichment. Undergraduate Animal Discovery Room (ADR) helpers, with the assistance of TEAMS interns, conduct daily checks of all ADR animals.  Helpers and interns are the first to notice any changes in the animals’ behavior or physical appearance. If there is a behavioral or physical change in an animal, it is monitored and may receive vet care depending on the severity of the situation. In order to monitor all of the ADR animals, we conduct monthly weight checks. New or sick animals are weighed weekly to ensure that they are adjusting well and staying healthy. When needed, we administer medicine, supplied by our veterinarians.

UC Berkeley Office of Laboratory and Animal Care (OLAC) veterinarians provide care for all LHS animals according to campus animal care and USDA regulations. Veterinarians are available 24/7 to provide quality veterinary care and advice. They do routine checkups on all of the animals, as well as operations and x-rays, and provide other veterinary services.