By Jim Knippenberg
The Cincinnati Enquirer

It's hot, steamy and sometimes deafening. But always stunning. Find out for yourself when the Newport Aquarium's $4.5 million expansion and its Hidden Treasures of the Rainforest Islands exhibit open Saturday. It's the first expansion since the $40 million facility opened in 1999.

The second phase of the expansion, a second floor space for special events and a large room for visiting exhibits, will open in 2005.

Rainforest Curator, Ric Urban holds a Dusky Lory one of the new creatures that will be part of the "Hidden Treasures of the Rainforest Islands" a new exhibit that opens May 29 at the Newport Aquarium. Tony Jones/ The Cincinnati Enquirer

Feel it: Treasures is an immersion exhibit, which means it plunges you into the animal's environment, as opposed to the old-fashioned notion of plopping the animals into yours. In this case, the environment is a tropical rainforest, so it's heated to 80 degrees with 75-degree humidity.

See the rainforest: The sunny exhibit is almost half glass and crammed full of lush, brightly colored tropical foliage, hanging vines, cool pools and rushing waterfalls.

See the otters: Six Asian small-clawed otters live in a pleasure dome of an exhibit area - an 8,000 gallon pool with Plexiglas sides so you can look in, and a dry area where they can dry off and play. They like to romp, which works up their appetite, but the Aquarium - the only place in our region to see these rare creatures - makes them work for their food. The live fish, crustaceans and cat food are injected through the pipes that fill the pool, and they have to track it down, as they would in the wild.

By the numbers

$4.5 million Cost of expansion 21,200 square feet Space in the new area 1 million gallons Amount of water in Newport Aquarium complex 65 Total exhibits after expansion 6,000 Animals after expansion $2 Price of ponchos for people squeamish about bird splatter 365 Number of days a year aquarium is open

Hear it: A few steps beyond the otters and through a plastic chain-link curtain, 50 brightly colored lories and lorikeets, members of the parrot family, screech like crazy and free-fly in the exhibit's second area. Buy a cup of nectar ($1) and they'll land on your hand for a snack. Because only a black net separates their area from the otters, you hear them long before you see them.

This is no place if you're squeamish, or superstitious, about a bit of bird droppings on the head. And certainly no place if you have a phobia of birds, which is why there's an exhibit bypass if you're that worried.

Snaking right along: Whether you sidestep the birds or not, you'll end up face-to-face with Ruby and Sarah, 9-foot and 11-foot pythons, swimming in their Plexiglas pool or lounging in the adjacent dry area. Be sure to check out their custom decor, done up like Asian temple ruins.

Play with the toys: Much of the exhibit is interactive, allowing you to slap a Sumatran tiger's or orangutan's paw print and hear them roar. Elsewhere, squeeze a tree and measure your hand strength in pounds per square inch (psi), then compare it to the python's (250 psi). (Most people come in at 25-50 psi.)

More Rainforest Animals (pdf)

jknippenberg@enquirer.com