Embrace Your Wild Side At The Cleveland Museum Of Natural History

Have you encountered the Northeast Ohio otter or the gray fox? You can when the Ralph II Perkins Wildlife Center & Woods Garden, a part of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s renovation and redesign, opens in late summer. With a 250-foot-long aerial trailway system for foxes and bobcats, aviaries for birds such as turkey vultures, and a 50-foot-long transparent underwater domain for otters, the center aims to introduce Ohio native rescue animals that museum visitors thought they knew but never got near. Yes, that even includes raccoons, which are in another trailway. “There’s a lot of folks that curse [them] because they get into your trash cans,” says Harvey Webster, director of wildlife resources. “But when you actually have the chance to see them in the flesh, you might begin to understand what they’re all about.” Also this summer, look for the new Sears Garden, which is at the foot of the Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard hill, with a limestone wall featuring famed artist and industrial designer Viktor Schreckengost’s restored mammoth and mastodon sculptures. 1 Wade Oval Drive, Cleveland, 216-231-4600, cmnh.org