More than 5600 people have visited the Otago Museum's Dinosaur Eggs and Babies exhibition, in a positive public response to the museum's latest dinosaur show.
If attendance continues at the same rate, the museum's 20,000-visitor entry target for the exhibition will be exceeded when the paid-entry exhibition ends on May 2.
Clare Wilson, the museum director, exhibitions, development and planning, is confident the target will be reached and hopes it will be exceeded.
After the show had opened on December 12, pre-Christmas attendance had been, as expected, relatively quiet, but had since greatly increased, she said.
January was expected to be one of the exhibition's busiest months.
The show had attracted a wide range of visitors, and had proved popular with families, particularly those with young children.
"It's a highly enjoyable experience which includes something for every member of the family."
A series of fun activities for children, titled "Dino Bash", will be run at the museum tomorrow.
The touring exhibition features scientifically credible cast specimens of a baby dinosaur, as well as casts of more than 60 dinosaur eggs, nests, skeletons and embryos; plus two real dinosaur bones.
• Chinese Dinosaurs, an exhibition in 2003 of fossilised dinosaurs from China, still holds the record for the largest number of visitors attending a paid exhibition at the museum - more than 50,000. A total of 33,000 people attended the museum's previously most popular touring show, involving Japanese Robot Dinosaurs, in 1993.
