Butterfly World Facts for Kids

This page is about the park in Florida, United States. For the three parks in England, see Butterfly World, Isle of Wight. For Butterfly World, Hertfordshire, see And. For Butterfly World, Swindon, see Butterfly World (disambiguation).

Quick facts for kids
Butterfly World
Morpho peleides at Butterfly World
Date opened	March 28, 1988
Location	Coconut Creek, Florida, United States
Land area	10 acres (4.0 hectares)
Coordinates	26°16′06″N 80°10′17″W / 26.2684034°N 80.1713133°W / 26.2684034; -80.1713133
No. of animals	~20,000 (butterflies)
No. of species	50 (butterflies)

Butterfly World is a super cool place in Coconut Creek, Florida. It opened in 1988 and is known as the biggest butterfly park in the world! It was also the very first park of its kind in North and South America. Imagine seeing about 20,000 live butterflies flying all around you!

History of Butterfly World
Cool Exhibits to Explore
Helping Butterflies and Plants
Gallery
See also

History of Butterfly World

After working as an electrical engineer, a man named Ronald Boender started raising butterflies. He also grew the special plants they eat right at his home in Florida.

In 1984, he created a company called MetaScience. This company helped provide farmed butterflies to zoos and universities. In 1985, he visited England and met Clive Farrell. Clive had started the London Butterfly House.

Ronald Boender decided he wanted to create his own butterfly park in Florida. He and Clive Farrell worked together to plan the new facility. It was designed to be a fun place for people to visit. It was also a place for important butterfly research and farming.

Butterfly World first opened its doors on March 28, 1988. Since then, it has grown a lot! It now has the largest free-flying hummingbird aviary in the United States. There's also a Lorikeet Encounter, where you can feed colorful birds. Plus, it has a special research center for birds.

Cool Exhibits to Explore

Graphium agamemnon (a type of butterfly) at Butterfly World.

Butterfly World has many amazing areas to discover:

Paradise Adventure Aviary

This area is filled with beautiful fountains and ponds. You'll see lots of butterflies flying freely around you here.

Hanging Garden & Butterfly Emerging Area

In this special spot, you can see display cases. Inside, you'll find hanging pupae (like cocoons) and watch new butterflies as they come out!

Tropical Rain Forest Aviary

Step into a mini rainforest with a waterfall and tropical plants. You'll see free-flying birds and, of course, many butterflies.

Grace Gardens

This is an outdoor botanical garden. It's full of beautiful tropical plants and flowers.

Wings of the World Secret Garden

This garden has one of the biggest collections of flowering Passion Flower vines anywhere. Passion flowers are very important because many butterflies use them for food.

Jewels of the Sky Aviary

This aviary is where you can see many exotic and colorful birds.

Museum and Insectarium

This area has exhibits of mounted insects. You can see different kinds of beetles, scorpions, butterflies, moths, and other cool bugs.

The Bug Zoo

Here, you can see live insects up close! They have water bugs, spiders, wasps, walking sticks, and mantises.

Butterfly Laboratory

Visitors can even peek into the laboratory. This is where the butterflies are raised. You can see all the different stages of a butterfly's life. This includes tiny eggs, caterpillars, and pupae.

Helping Butterflies and Plants

Butterfly World is also important for helping nature. The Passiflora Society International was started right here. This group encourages research and shares information about passion flowers. These flowers are a main food source for many butterflies.

Butterfly World also helped create the Boender Endangered Species Laboratory. This lab is at the University of Florida. It is working to bring back the Schaus swallowtail butterfly. This special butterfly is being reintroduced to Southern Florida.