NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher adds six robotic dinosaurs to garden

FORT FISHER, NC (WWAY) — The North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher is the home of more than 4,000 animals and more than 300 species.

The aquarium added six animatronic dinosaurs to an exhibit Monday that will be opening next month.

“They are pretty much giant robots,” said Robby Gilbert, Director of Exhibits and Sales of Billings Production The Dinosaur Company. “They’ve got movement, heads turn left and right, bodies move up and down, and of course they will give out a roar.”

Crews lowered each robotic animal one by one into their specific location within the garden.

Aquarium Director Peggy Sloan said, “People will be very surprised when they walk through the garden, a little bit of unexpected surprise around every corner.”

“First off dinosaurs are cool,” said Sloan. “They are really interesting animals. They are really cool to see.”

The smaller animals like the Citipati weighs several hundreds pounds while the Tyrannosaurus tops the scales at 6,000 pounds.

“You have to have a T-rex,” Sloan said. “That is the rock star of dinosaurs. Everyone knows that animal. They are huge and impressive. Edmontonia lived at the same time of a T-rex and we thought it would be interesting for them to be seen together which is something you would see at the time dinosaurs walked the Earth.”

Sloan said some of the animals at the aquarium are just as old as dinosaurs.

“They also tell a story about biodiversity,” Sloan said. “These animals are ancient and some of the animals we have in the exhibit are almost as old as the dinosaurs such as alligators and sharks.”

“We’re able to plop these dinosaurs down with all these old prehistoric plants too,” Gilbert said. “The magnolia trees, the cyclades, these ferns that you’re going to see and the palmettos are plants that have been around since the time of dinosaurs.”

The exhibit will open March 19 and stay open until September.