Check out the center’s live, two-headed rat snake.
Free admission to the nature center means you can enjoy the interactive exhibits, learn more about Missouri wildlife and appreciate the beauty of the building itself.
The weather for outdoor hiking, hunting, fishing and bird-watching might be taking a turn for the chilly and wet, but Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center is ready to satisfy your call to the wild — and you might learn something valuable to your hobby and about your state, to boot.
On a recent trip to the Missouri Department of Conservation-run center, an older gentleman walked in carrying a large bowl filled with fungus.
“I’m wondering if you can help me identify what I got here,” he said. “I’m thinking it’s some kind of mushroom I can eat.”
It turned out to be Hen of the Woods, or Maitake, a mushroom that, when cooked properly and safely, is said to taste a lot like chicken.
His curiosity satisfied, he walked further into the center with his wife and a number of grandchildren to explore the interactive exhibits, aquariums, videos and taxidermy mounts that explain Missouri’s flora and fauna.
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Open Tuesday through Saturday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., the Nature Center opened in 2005 near the intersection of Kingshighway and exit 99 on I-55, although if you’re visiting, the highway and intersection are undergoing a massive renovation, so a slight detour might be necessary — just consult your GPS map.
Pictured is the approach to the Cape Girardeau Conservation Nature Center.
Sarah Haas
The center’s landscape contains Missouri native plants, which gives homeowners ideas for how they can best benefit hummingbirds and bees, while providing seasonal color and interest.
Sarah Haas
Free admission to the nature center means you can enjoy the interactive exhibits, learn more about Missouri wildlife and appreciate the beauty of the building itself.
Sarah Haas
Native American artifacts, exhibits on camping, hunting and nature, and freshwater aquariums await the curious visitor.
Sarah Haas
Check out the center’s live, two-headed rat snake.
Sarah Haas
There’s even space to just sit and look out the window, providing warm, dry bird-watching opportunities.
Sarah Haas
The center’s many freshwater aquariums let visitors see Missouri’s normally skittish fish up close.
Sarah Haas
Anyone with cabin fever could try a different cabin– as featured in the nature center’s exhibit.
Sarah Haas
Kids can even scramble through a beaver dam.
Sarah Haas
See what the animal fur feels like.
Sarah Haas
No one will have to go “hunting” for a good time at the nature center. It’s all right there, waiting for you to learn more about all Missouri’s wildlife has to offer.
Sarah Haas
More than half a million people have walked through the center’s doors, often with small children in tow, ready to take advantage of the many exhibits, lectures, videos and youth and adult classes — fly fishing, archery, seed collecting, and identifying mushrooms, snakes, trees, birds, and all manner of Southeast Missouri’s many specimens of life — even “scat,” which is a polite term for “wildlife poop.”
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