Did you know that for every person on earth, there are nearly 200 million insects?!? There are more beetles than any other animal. This is actually good news. Without bugs, our ecosystem would shut down. Many animals would have nothing to eat, our rivers would become infested with algae, and flowers would go unpollinated.
Learn more about the amazing world of insects with a visit to The Butterfly Pavilion, an invertebrate zoo that allows you to see and interact with live animals from around the world. They aim to educate the public about the importance of invertebrates, which make up about 97% of the species on our planet, and habitat conservation. It is divided into four main sections:
Crawl-a-See-Em is a room containing dozens of terrariums with beetles, roaches, scorpions, millipedes, leaf insects, and many spiders living in Tarantula Tower. Children (and adults) have an opportunity to hold Rosie, their Chilean Rose Hair tarantula. Several step stools are available so your child has an opportunity to get eye-to-eye with the critters living in here.
Water’s Edge features fish, jellies, sea stars, and other sea creatures. Two large tanks make up the petting zoo where you and your child can gently touch horseshoe crabs, sea urchins, and sea stars.
Wings of the Tropics is a 3,000 square foot enclosed rain forest that is home to more than 1,200 live butterflies and moths of all colors and sizes.
The chrysalis viewing area is located near the exit of this room. The Butterfly Pavilion receives 600-1,200 chrysalises each week from nine sustainable butterfly farms around the world so they are all in different stages of life here. Watch patiently for a few moments and you will see several of them moving; you may even be as lucky as we were and see a butterfly emerge from one of them.
Butterfly Encounters, with a live butterfly release, takes place daily at 12:30 PM and 3:30 PM. Although you are not allowed to touch the butterflies, you could have one land on you, especially if you are wearing red.
The Traveling Exhibit Hall changes approximately every six months, and is always bug-themed. The constant in this room are the display cases holding hundreds of varieties of honeybees, scarabs, grasshoppers, cicadas, butterflies, and more.
When the weather is nice, take a walk outside through the Discovery Garden with butterfly gardens, gazebos, and The Nature Trail, a 1.5-mile loop. The best time to visit the Discovery Garden is June through September, when everything is in bloom.
The Butterfly Pavilion is open daily (except for Thanksgiving and Christmas) from 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM, with the last entrance at 4:15 PM.
The Butterfly Pavilion
6252 West 104th Avenue
Westminster, 80020
(303) 469-5441
www.butterflies.org
