Georgia Aquarium says “rivers are a source of life for animals, people and cultures throughout the world” and here in their River Scout exhibit you are surrounded by this life source.  Imagine yourself walking beneath a North American river with a fish eyes view of a variety of different fish swimming above your head.  That’s the amazing opportunity Georgia Aquarium’s River Scout exhibit affords you.  Here you’ll discover a wide diversity of animals, from mammals to reptiles to fish, which are found in the rivers of Asia, Africa, South America as well as Georgia too.

discus

You are drawn into the River Scout exhibit by a large rock waterfall and next to it a large view into the Amazon, with exotic fish like the brilliantly bright orange and blue discus.  From various cichlids to electric eels, to the zoo’s albino alligators and the infamous piranha with their mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, you’ll find yourself walking beside them, below them or seemingly through their waters, this exhibit offers an eye to eye view on some interesting creatures.

piranha

One fish that has always astounded me, from the first time I saw its show on a BBC documentary as a child, is the archerfish.  Found from India to Papua New Guinea as well as Australia, these fascinating fish live up to their name by using water to shoot out of its mouth and out of the water to hit their prey up to five feet away.  Oh how the wonderful world of animals great and small amaze me!

The cutest animals you’ll find here are the Asian small-clawed otters in a large exhibit reminiscent of their native habitat of mangrove swamps in South East Asia.  This is a great enclosure, with a waterfalls and underwater viewing, it allows visitors to see these, the smallest of the otter species, active and entertaining bundles of fur slide into their pool, slink after each other, cuddle and put on an underwater show of their own.