Live Animal Feeding: Lobster

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences is hosting a live animal feeding of a Maine lobster on Saturday, November 21, from 1:30 PM to 1:45 PM. It's a short, focused session over at the Nature Exploration Center on the museum's fourth floor, inside the Arthropod Zoo. If Saturday doesn't work, they also run the same feeding on Tuesdays at 1:30 PM, so you've got a couple of options to fit it in.

The whole point is to get up close with a Maine lobster—described as a formidable and feisty crustacean—and watch it eat while the museum's Living Collections staff walk you through what's happening. It's not just about the feeding itself; they'll be talking about the animal as it goes, so you'll get a better sense of how it works rather than just watching it from a distance. One detail they point out is the lobster's tough exoskeleton, which incorporates minerals like lime to keep it strong—a good bit of context to have in mind while you're looking at it.

Because it's run by the Living Collections staff, the people who actually work with the animals are the ones leading the session. They're the ones who can tell you what to look for and answer questions on the fly, which makes a fifteen-minute window like this feel more like a guided look than just a random observation. It's a walk-up program, so there's no registration required—you just show up when you're ready.

Finding it is easy: the Nature Exploration Center is on the fourth floor of the museum, and the Arthropod Zoo is right there within it. The museum is at 400 West Jones Street in downtown Raleigh. Admission to the feeding is free, and since it's a walk-up, you can just drop in on a Saturday or Tuesday afternoon.