The California Academy of Sciences has celebrated its 172nd anniversary last week by lowering the museum’s $49 admission for adults to as low as $5 for the day. The Golden Gate Park icon also introduced a webcam to let online visitors interact with its famous albino alligator, Claude.
Some of its unionized employees, meanwhile, marked the anniversary dubbed Academy Day by holding a protest rally outside, calling for the Academy of Sciences’ leadership to provide a series of concessions related to pay, job security and transparency.
The Academy of Sciences is comprised of a natural history museum, aquarium, planetarium and indoor rainforest. It also serves as a research institute.
It was the third year in its 172-year history that it celebrated Academy Day by offering visitors a sliding price scale to enter. Nearly 6,300 visitors were recorded on Friday, according to a spokesperson, who recommended reserving tickets in advance for future pay-what-you-want days. Tickets initially sold out by 8 a.m., but more were made available at 1 p.m. for the rest of the day.
The union, which is named Cal Academy Workers United, is a division of Service Employees International Union 1021. Employees include those working in all areas of the academy, including in guest services, research, education, marketing and development.
About 40-50 employees participated in the demonstration in front of the academy building, inviting attendees of the celebration to hear their demands, which include an increase from $21 to $25 an hour for the lowest paid employees, identifiable pathways to gain promotions, regular pay increases, and more transparency about the academy’s budget that the union said had been lacking.
The group painted two murals on the ground. One featured colorful dinosaurs holding signs that read “living wages now!” and “save the humans” with a large message around the border of the circular mural that read “hear us roar” and “transparency now.”
The other featured worker bees, which the union has made its symbol, and read “invest in staff” and “fair wages now.”
The group heard from speakers including Grace Kim, a lab manager at the academy’s Center for Comparative Genomics and a member of the union’s contract action team.
Standing on the steps in front of the building, Kim led the group in a chant of “fair wages now!” before making a short speech along with other members of the union’s bargaining team. The employees accuse the academy’s leadership of withholding budget information and stalling after offering 1% raises.
“We’re continuing negotiations, we’re hoping that this will demonstrate to management that we are in community with each other, we have the ability for collective action,” she said in an interview.
An academy spokesperson said there had been 27 tentative agreements reached and that negotiations were continuing.
“Our goal is to reach an agreement as soon as possible that honors our employees’ contributions while ensuring the long-term financial health of the Academy as a beloved nonprofit institution in San Francisco,” the academy’s spokesperson said.
All eyes on Claude
Inside, visitors enjoyed a range of activities and special events for Academy Day, including the launch of the “Claude Cam,” a webcam that can be controlled by users online to get a more in depth look at the academy’s albino American alligator, Claude.
Claude is sometimes still for long periods, leading some visitors to doubt if he is real, according to the academy. The camera will allow users to form a virtual queue and take turns controlling it for two-minute intervals.
Claude is 29 years old and lives with two snapping turtles and fish in an exhibit called “The Swamp.”
The building also features an enclosed, multi-story rainforest with birds, snakes, insects and fish, a penguin exhibit, and an underground aquarium. There are interactive exhibits such as an earthquake simulator and bioluminescence displays, and animatronic dinosaurs in its side gardens.
On Academy Day, visitors could see animal demonstrations and take in a science fair, bid on art created by penguins and experience two new exhibits: Dino Days and Unseen Oceans. But Claude is a main draw.
One visitor, Jennifer, who declined to give her last name, said she planned her family’s visit from Washington state after her 11-year-old son learned about Claude in school.
Her son Ricardo said he read about Claude in a book in his school’s library and was told by the librarian that the alligator lived in San Francisco.
He said housing the albino alligator at the Academy of Sciences would keep it safe from predators in the wild.
That was a fact confirmed by Brenda Melton, director of animal care and welfare at the academy’s Steinhart Aquarium, who announced the launch of the “Claude Cam” with a presentation including facts about Claude.
She said Claude came to the Academy of Sciences in 2008 and was lifted into the exhibit with a crane.
“As an alligator with albinism, he has a couple of threats in the wild,” Melton said.
“As a hatchling, being so little, and being very bright white with no camouflage, he is at high risk of predation. And also, because of that lack of pigmentation in his skin, he is very susceptible to getting sunburned. So, our habitat is really perfect for him, because we’re able to provide him with the UV light that he needs, but not in so much that it’s going to be detrimental to him. So, he’s very safe here, he’s very protected, and he’s quite frankly living his best life,” Melton said.
The Claude cam was funded by a donation from Anthropic, a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence startup. The donation also covers exhibit maintenance and Claude’s food and veterinary costs, according to a press release from the academy.