[Photo from tourismvancouver.com]

The numbers are amazing on their own. The Vancouver Aquarium is the largest marine wildlife museum in Canada. It is home to more than 70,000 animals, some 80,000 children take advantage of its school programs each year, volunteers donate around 58,000 hours of service a year and more than 35 million people have visited since its doors opened in 1956.

But it’s the actual wildlife — the whales, otters, snakes, dolphins and more — that amaze the hundreds of thousands who pass through the door of the aquarium each year, which is situated in the middle of Stanley Park just on the outskirts of downtown Vancouver.