This Valentine’s Day, if you’re still recovering from an ex, Norwalk's Maritime Aquarium is here to help. You can name a cockroach, worm or dead fish after your ex — or anyone else — and you can watch them feed it to a lizard, sea turtle or a harbor seal. They’re calling the fundraiser Love Bites.
Peewee is a Savannah Monitor, a big greenish-beige lizard from sub-Saharan Africa.
“He has this very long tongue that he flicks to smell the environment around him," said curator Gulie Mede Moussa. “And he has these really big claws that you see here that make it really easy for him to dig in the ground and find some bugs like the one he's going to eat in a little bit.”
She pulls out a cockroach from a plastic container. Social media manager Alison Carpino bestows a name on the unfortunate insect from a donor, Sarah, presumably someone’s ex-girlfriend, and Peewee snaps up the cockroach.
Carpino said it’s a good alternative for people who aren’t always happy on Valentine’s Day.
“We wanted to turn people's heartbreak into something amazing and support the Aquarium's mission," she said.
It’s not just cockroaches and worms. You can also name a dead fish and feed it to a harbor seal, or a veggie and feed it to a sea turtle. In exchange for a donation, you’ll get a video of the animal of your choice — $5 for a turtle, $10 for a lizard and $15 for a harbor seal.
