New York Times features art grad who creates exhibits at the Bronx Zoo

Exhibit Specialist Carolyn Fuchs '96 works to create a habitat for a blue tree monitor lizard at the Bronx Zoo. Photo by Karsten Moran for The New York Times.
Exhibit Specialist Carolyn Fuchs '96 works to create a habitat for a blue tree monitor lizard at the Bronx Zoo. Photo by Karsten Moran for The New York Times.

A July 15 New York Times article highlights the work of Carolyn Fuchs ’96, an exhibit specialist at the Bronx Zoo. Fuchs, who majored in art, is one of a team of artists and fabricators working since last winter to create realistic-looking homes for the zoo’s new lizard exhibit.

This is the first time the zoo has shown Komodo dragons, a dinosaur-like Indonesian species that can grow to 10 feet and 150 pounds, according to the Times.

Working on a habitat for blue tree monitor lizards, Fuchs used photographs of New Guinea to carve ersatz rocks, trees and other local vegetation out of fiberglass. She previously worked on the museum’s Madagascar exhibit.

For Fuchs and her colleagues, no detail is too small. Their work includes sculpting epoxy to mimic the texture of tree bark, painting realistic lichen and fabricating fiberglass cliffs to mimic a specific red-brown Australian sandstone.

They also get their share of odd-ball jobs. The Times reports that the team's past assignment have included fashioning a prosthetic beak for a hornbill and creating protective coverings for the horns of an ibex after it gored a baboon.



July 17, 2013