The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk introduces rare blue lobster and tropical rainforest parrot

Blue Lobster photo via The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk

The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk has introduced several new animals across its public exhibits, featuring species with distinct behaviors, physical adaptations, and origin stories. The new additions include a rare lobster, a tropical parrot, a desert lizard, poison dart frogs, and a moray eel.

Among the new arrivals is an American blue lobster estimated to be over six years old, residing in the non-touch side of the Intertidal Touch Tank. The male lobster possesses a genetic anomaly causing an overproduction of the protein complex crustacyanin, a condition found in roughly one in every 2 million American lobsters.

Visitors to the Just Add Water Exhibit can view Parker, a 26-year-old male Yellow-crowned Amazon parrot native to South American rainforests. The bird has learned training cues that allow him to say his name, present his feet, and identify specific colors during staff sessions.

Yellow crowned amazon parrot at the maritime aquarium at norwalk — Photo via The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk

The aquarium’s Sea & Discover Zone now houses a 4½-year-old male dwarf shield-tailed agama from the deserts of Somalia and Ethiopia. The lizard features a flat, spiky tail used to block predators from entering burrows, and his throat turns a metallic blue color during mating season or display behaviors.

Four 1-year-old splashback poison dart frogs from the southern Amazon Basin of Brazil are also on view in the Just Add Water Exhibit. Unlike their wild counterparts, which develop toxicity from their diet of wild insects, these captive frogs are not poisonous.

Additionally, an eight-year-old green moray eel from the Western Atlantic Ocean has joined the Sea Turtle Exhibit. The eel relies on specialized light-sensitive eyes adapted for detecting prey movement in place of fine detail vision.

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The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk introduces rare blue lobster and tropical rainforest parrot