Butterfly Pavilion facts for kids
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| Date opened | July 1, 1995 |
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| Location | Westminster, Colorado, United States |
| Land area | 11 acres (4.5 ha) |
| Coordinates | 39°53′14″N 105°03′59″W / 39.8872°N 105.0665°W |
| Website | www.butterflies.org |
The Butterfly Pavilion is a super cool place in Westminster, Colorado. It opened its doors on July 1, 1995. This was the very first non-profit insect zoo in the United States! The Pavilion sits on 11 acres of land. Inside, it has 30,000 square feet of space. You can explore five main exhibit areas here. They teach you all about butterflies and other amazing invertebrates. The biggest exhibit is an indoor rain forest. It's home to 1,200 tropical butterflies flying freely!
The Butterfly Pavilion is a non-profit organization. Most of its money comes from ticket sales and donations. It also gets help from the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD) in Colorado. Since it brings in insects from other countries, the USDA helps make sure everything is safe. The Butterfly Pavilion is also approved by the AZA. This means it meets high standards for animal care.
History of the Butterfly Pavilion
In 1990, a group called the Rocky Mountain Butterfly Consortium started. Their goal was to create a public butterfly house. About five years later, on July 15, 1995, the Butterfly Pavilion and Insect Center opened. It was the first stand-alone butterfly house and invertebrate zoo in the United States.
In 1996, the Pavilion joined the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD). A year later, in 1997, they launched their first outreach program. It was called the Bugmobile! This special mobile classroom visits schools. By 2010, it was teaching about 20,000 students every year. Also in 1997, the Pavilion became known as the fastest growing cultural spot in Denver. In 1998, their old offices became a new exhibit. It was called Water's Edge, a cool tide pool display.
The Adult Education department started in 2000. In 2002, the Pavilion began offering special courses for teachers. They partnered with the Colorado School of Mines for these classes. In 2003, construction began on a big new addition. This 13,000 square foot space opened in 2004. It added four classrooms, new offices, and more exhibit space. In June 2007, the outdoor Dee Lidvall Discovery Garden opened. This garden has an amphitheater for learning. It also has different types of gardens and a water feature. Its main goal is to connect classroom lessons with nature.
In 2008, a manager from the Pavilion helped NASA. She was a consultant for an experiment called "Butterflies and Spiders in Space." She helped create guides for teachers. She also assisted with experiments on the ground in Colorado classrooms.
In 2017, the Butterfly Pavilion shared exciting news. They planned to open a new butterfly pavilion in Fort Collins by 2019. In May 2017, they also announced plans to move their main Westminster location. The new spot would be in Broomfield. This new location would be part of a Science and Technology Park.
Explore the Exhibits
The Butterfly Pavilion has many amazing exhibits to explore. Each one lets you get up close with different creatures!
Wings of the Tropics This is a huge 7,000 square foot tropical rain forest. It's filled with over 1,200 butterflies! You'll also see 200 different plant species from tropical areas. On one side, you can watch butterflies hatch from their chrysalides. Twice a day, staff release new butterflies into the rain forest. The Butterfly Pavilion buys about 500 butterfly chrysalides each week. They come from butterfly farms all over the world.
Crawl-A-See-Em In this exhibit, you can observe many cool invertebrates. You'll see tarantulas, leaf insects, scorpions, beetles, and giant millipedes. The best part? You can even hold Rosie! Rosie is a friendly Chilean rose hair tarantula.
Water's Edge This exhibit is all about animals that live in ocean tide pools. You can see and even touch amazing creatures here. Look for sea stars, sea cucumbers, and horseshoe crabs. It's a great way to learn about ocean life!
The Nature Trail Just outside the Pavilion, you'll find a 0.5-mile nature trail. It runs along Big Dry Creek. Here, you can spot Colorado's native insects. You might also see prairie dogs and rabbits. Keep an eye out for a heron, hawk, or eagle perched in a tree!
Dee Lidvall Discovery Garden This outdoor garden is a special place for learning. It has a butterfly garden with colorful flowers. These flowers, like pincushion flower and cosmos, attract local butterflies. There's also a xeriscape garden. This garden shows off dry-land plants. You'll see cactus, ice plant, penstemon, yarrow, and lavender here.
From mid-December to mid-January, the Butterfly Pavilion also hosts "Living Lights" events. These special evening events happen on non-holiday Thursdays through Sundays.
