San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
WINGS AND SIGNS OF SPRING
Butterfly Jungle at the S.D. Zoo Safari Park limits numbers to improve experience for visitors, decrease crowds
Two-year-old Malia Wade came dressed for the occasion and with a clear goal in mind as she visited the San Diego Zoo Safari Park on Thursday.
“She’s waiting for a blue morpho to come,” said her grandmother Debbie Berg as she held a vial of nectar while standing next to Malia, who wore a blue butterfly-print dress.
“Oh, here comes one!” Berg said to Malia, “Did you see it?”
The blue morpho, along with more than 30 other species of butterfly, actually was pretty easy to spot. They flew freely around one of the park’s bird aviaries, which is serving as the Butterfly Jungle Safari exhibit through Mother’s Day, May 8.
Butterflies landed on shoulders, heads, leaves, flowers and nectar stations, where they were attracted to yellow, purple and orange hexagons sprinkled with pollen.
James Lotz, lead wildlife care specialist at the park, was on hand to tell guests about the different butterfly species and their traits. For instance, certain butterflies are attracted to certain colors, which accounts for the different types of hexagons and different colors of flowers on nectar vials given to guests.
The park first opened a Butterfly Encounter in 1993, and Butterfly Jungle has continued each year as part of Spring Safari. Visitors who remember large crowds in the past, however, will notice something different this year.
Crowds are much smaller, with only 50 people allowed in for 20-minute tours, which now cost $15.
Lotz said large crowds inside the exhibit on busy days had diminished the experience for guests. It was even worse for the butterflies, which sometimes were damaged or even stepped on.
Park officials already were considering how to improve the exhibit when the pandemic hit in March 2020, temporarily closing the Zoo and Safari Park, he said. The exhibit reopened the following year, and the number of guests was restricted for safety.
“We were able to have a slower-paced experience last year, and it ended up going pretty well,” Lotz said. “It seemed to really enhance the experience for the people, and it was a better experience for the butterflies, too.”
The exhibit is open from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., giving guests 14 windows to experience it.
“I got a membership for Christmas and knew this was one thing that was going to be on my bucket list.” said April Berg (no relation to Debbie Berg), at Butterfly Jungle on Thursday during her second visit to the park in two months.
“I try to make the most of my membership,” she said while holding a nectar vial to feed a butterfly on her shoulder.
“I love butterflies,” said Kylie Leavitt, 11, as she looked at one perched on her arm. “They’ve always been an interest of mine, and I’m learning about them in school.”
Lotz said there are some monarchs and other native butterf lies at the exhibit, but the majority are native to Central and South America, Asia or Africa.
“Most people who come through here will never see these butterflies anywhere else in their life,” he said.
The park receives the butterflies from breeding farms in Denver and Costa Rica while they are still in a pupa stage inside a chrysalis. They emerge as butterflies in a high-temperature, high-humidity room next to the enclosure and are released to live out a lifespan of two weeks to two months.
The park does not have a permit from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to breed the butterflies, which are considered an exotic species, so none of the plants in the aviary are the type butterflies could use for breeding, Lotz said.
While the butterflies themselves are harmless, allowing them to breed and produce voracious caterpillars would be a problem, especially if any were to escape into the wild, he said. As guests leave the exhibit, they are stopped at two exits where staff members give them a once-over to check for stowaways.
In a new attraction this spring, the park is offering a Mimosa Safari on weekends for guests 21 years old and older. The cost is $129 and up per person and includes a ride in an open-air safari truck for up-close views of giraffes, antelope and other animals. Mimosas and pastries are included.
For reservation information for that and other safaris offered at the park, visit https://sdzsafaripark.org/ safaris/wildlife-safari.