I was totally blown away last Friday. I went to visit San Diego Zoo Safari Park’s annual springtime event, Butterfly Jungle, which has hundreds of butterflies flying around. I have never seen anything like that and I was just like the little children in zoo: eyes gazed, smiling happily and laughing. What a beautiful sight. Butterfly jungle is in Secret Garden, in a large room where the air is humid and warm, just like a rainforest. That is the perfect temperature for exotic butterflies, who fly from flower to flower and spread the pollen around the garden. Guests are encouraged to wear bright colors and move slowly to attract the butterflies. Butterflies may land on a shoulder or head. I had several landing on my sweatshirt.
I saw at least 10 different kind of butterflies in secret garden. The most amazing is Giant Owl butterfly. The butterfly has brown-grey-yellow wings that look like eyes. When butterfly flashes its wings it looks like an owl is watching and that scares the birds away from the butterfly. In Secret Garden, The Giant Owl butterflies like to be in herds: there were at least seven butterflies “drinking” at the same time from the water plate. In South America, protecting butterflies has become a job. Families maintain natural areas, where butterflies love to fly around and tourist can go and see them. That way it’s better not to cut down rainforests but have tourists come over. The butterflies life is short: they only live two to four weeks. In San Diego Zoo Safari Park there are lot of new butterflies from the butterfly home, so butterflies are brought out to see every week. Info: – San Diego Zoo Safari Park’s Butterfly Jungle features thousands of colorful butterflies from more than 20 species, as they flitter and float around Safari Park guests in a walk-through aviary. – The Hidden Jungle aviary is also home to lush greenery and many exotic birds – including red-crested turacos, pygmy geese and beautiful sunbirds. – Butterfly Jungle runs March 12 to April 10, with extended Safari Park hours – from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily – during this event.
– More info: www.sdzsafaripark.org (I’m Hanna Laukkanen, a 26-year-old journalist, who moved from Finland to San Diego for an internship in San Diego Community Newspaper Group. In this blog I will compare Finnish and American lifestyles and try to find out a lot more about the Californian way of living. Please send me feedback at [email protected].)