Butterfly zoo

Butterfly Zoo
Monsanto Insectarium

A butterfly zoo, butterfly house, or butterfly conservatory is a zoo which is specifically intended for the breeding and display of butterflies. Some butterfly houses also feature other insects, spiders, scorpions, etc.

History

Live butterfly exhibits became popular in England in the end of 1970s, appealing to the British love of greenhouses and natural settings.

The first one in the United States, Butterfly World, was opened in Coconut Creek, Florida, in 1988.

Activities

Feeding butterflies at the Schmetterlingsparadies in Mannheim

Exhibition at the Kuala Lumpur Butterfly Park with vivaria of other insects

Butterfly zoos are open to the public. A double-entry door is usually used to ensure that no butterflies escape.

Exploration of such zoos may be with a guide or on one's own, at leisure. Guided tours may last about fifteen minutes, as the guide points out all the species of butterflies that are in the greenhouse that day (new shipments usually arrive weekly, and stocks vary). Guides may also show butterfly eggs, caterpillars, and chrysalids and identify specific plants that are favored by each species. Between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. is usually the best time to see butterflies emerging from their pupae.

Butterflies are most active on warm and sunny days with little wind, because they require the heat of the sun to aid in their digestion. On rainy days, they usually hide in the flowers and leaves.

There are often many different species in such zoos, with stock including butterflies from Africa, Malaysia, South America, Thailand, New Guinea, Costa Rica, the Philippines, and other places. The vibrant colors and patterns on the wings of the insects have earned them the fanciful nickname "flying flowers".

One should wear a light floral perfume and wear bright-colored or bright-white clothing to encourage the butterflies to land upon oneself, but one should never touch a butterfly. Butterflies are attracted to a bright Hawaiian print shirt for the same reason they are attracted to flowers, but a person's touch will cause damage to their sensitive wings because of the oils in people's skin and their easily damaged scales.

Many species of adult butterfly live only one to two weeks, during which time they must produce a new generation. Some species, such as the familiar Monarch butterfly, however, can live as long as six months or even longer in the wild.

List of butterfly zoos or gardens

Asia

Kuala Lumpur Butterfly Park

• Simply Butterflies Conservation Center, Bilar, Bohol Island, Philippines
• Phuket Butterfly Garden & Insect World, Phuket, Thailand
• Malacca Butterfly & Reptile Sanctuary, Ayer keroh, Malacca. Malaysia
• Kuala Lumpur Butterfly Park, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Penang Butterfly Farm, Penang, Malaysia, houses some 5,000 butterflies of over 120 species.
• Butterfly Park Bangladesh, Chittagong, Bangladesh.Contact-01748088625
• Butterfly Park, Bannerghatta National Park, Bangalore, India. 10,000 sq ft (1,000 m²) circular enclosure.
• Singapore Zoological Gardens - The Fragile Forest Enclosure (Singapore)
• Butterfly safari Park, Thenmala, Kerala (ecotourism in India)
• Butterfly garden, Wetland Park, Hong Kong.
• Butterfly garden, Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, Hong Kong.
• Butterfly Conservatory Of Goa, Goa, India. 4,000 sq ft (400 m²) enclosure. 12,000 sq ft (1,000 m²) facility. NGO
• Butterfly house, Ocean Park, Hong Kong

Caribbean

• The Butterfly Farm, St Maarten/St Martin, St Maarten St Martin
• The Butterfly Farm, Aruba, Aruba

Europe

• The North Somerset Butterfly House, Weston super Mare, UK

Schmetterlinghaus in the Imperial Garden in Vienna

• Bordano Butterfly House, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy
• Bornholm Butterfly Park, Bornholm, Denmark
• Collodi Butterfly House, Tuscany, Italy
• Butterfly Arc, Veneto, Italy
• Butterfly Botania, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland
• Butterfly Garden, Grevenmacher, Luxembourg
• Golders Hill Park, London NW3, UK
• London Butterfly House, London, UK
• Magic of Life Butterfly House, Rheidol Valley, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales, UK
• Mariposario de Benalmádena, the largest Butterfly Park in Europe.
• Oasi delle Farfalle di Milano, Lombardia, Italy
• Passiflorahoeve, Vlindertuin Harskamp Netherlands.
• Seaforde Gardens and Butterfly House, Seaforde, County Down, Northern Ireland
• Schmetterlinghaus, Vienna, Austria
• Stratford Butterfly Farm, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England
• Vlinderkas Diergaarde Blijdorp, Rotterdam, Netherlands
• Vlindertuin Dierenpark Emmen, Emmen, Netherlands
• Vlindertuin, Knokke, Belgium (now closed)
• Wroclawskie Zoo, Wroclaw, Poland

Latin America

• El Mariposario, Quindío, Colombia
• San Jose Butterfly Farm, San José, Costa Rica
• Mariposario Mindo, Mindo, Ecuador
• Cali Zoo, has a 450-square-meter (4,800 sq ft) butterfly house
• Mariposario Chapultepec, Mexico City, Mexico
• Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm, Iquitos, Peru

North America

Canada

• Montreal Insectarium, Montreal, Quebec (with annual exhibit at the Jardin botanique de Montréal)
• Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory, Cambridge, Ontario
• Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory, Niagara Falls, Ontario
• Victoria Butterfly Gardens, Brentwood Bay, British Columbia
• Newfoundland Insectarium, Deer Lake, Newfoundland and Labrador
• Butterflies & Blooms, Baldwin, Georgina, Ontario

United States

• Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Ashland Nature Center Butterfly House, Delaware Nature Society, Hockessin, Delaware
• Aveda Butterfly Garden, Minnesota Zoo, Apple Valley, Minnesota
• Bear Mountain Butterfly Sanctuary, Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania
• Berniece Grewcock Butterfly and Insect Pavilion, Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, Omaha, Nebraska
• Bioworks Butterfly Garden, Museum of Science and Industry, Tampa, Florida
• Blooming Butterfly Garden, Como Zoo, St. Paul, Minnesota
• Brookside Gardens, Wheaton, Maryland
• Butterflies and Plants: Partners in Evolution, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
• Butterfly Conservatory and Insect Zoo, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas
• Butterfly Garden, Bronx Zoo, The Bronx, New York
• Butterfly Garden, Museum of Science, Boston, Massachusetts
• Butterfly House, Detroit Zoo, Royal Oak, Michigan
• Butterfly House, Dayton, Ohio Cox Arboretum MetroPark
• Butterfly House, Mackinac Island, Michigan
• Butterfly House, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
• Butterfly House, Missouri Botanical Garden, Chesterfield, Missouri
• Butterfly House San Antonio Zoo, San Antonio, Texas
• Butterfly House, Whitehouse, Ohio
• Butterfly Wing, Reiman Gardens, Ames, Iowa
• Butterfly Landing, Franklin Park Zoo, Boston, Massachusetts
• Butterfly Magic, Tucson Botanical Gardens, Tucson, Arizona

Butterfly Palace, Branson, MO

• Butterfly Pavilion, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, California
• Butterfly Pavilion & Insect Center, Westminster, Colorado
• The Butterfly Farm, Birmingham Zoo, Birmingham, Alabama
• The Butterfly Place, Westford, Massachusetts
• Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center, Callaway Gardens, Pine Mountain, Georgia
• Cockrell Butterfly Center & Insect Zoo, Houston Museum of Natural Science, Houston, Texas
• Florida Museum of Natural History Butterfly Rainforest, Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, Florida
• Frederik Meijer Gardens, Grand Rapids Township, Michigan
• Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory, Key West, Florida
• Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory, South Deerfield, Massachusetts
• Magic Wings Butterfly House, North Carolina Museum of Life and Science, Durham, North Carolina
• Marshall Butterfly Pavilion, Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, Arizona
• Monsanto Insectarium, Saint Louis Zoological Park, St. Louis, Missouri
• The Montgomery Zoo, Montgomery, Alabama, is constructing a butterfly house which is planned to float in the natural lake that the zoo was built on.
• Orange County Native Butterfly House, The Environmental Nature Center, Newport Beach, California
• Panhandle Butterfly House, Navarre, Florida
• Puelicher Butterfly Wing, Milwaukee Public Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• Sertoma Butterfly House, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
• Tradewinds Park Butterfly World, Coconut Creek, Florida
• Tropical Butterfly House, Pacific Science Center, Seattle, Washington

Oceania

• Discovery World Tropical Forest, Otago Museum, Dunedin, New Zealand
• Kuranda Butterfly Farm
• Coffs Harbour Butterfly House
• Butterfly enclosure at the Melbourne Zoo.

See also

• List of insectariums

Sources

• The Entomological Society of America

External links

Media related to Butterfly zoos at Wikimedia Commons

• Visiting Butterfly Houses, Farms and Gardens