Butterfly Pavilion
Encyclopedia
The Butterfly Pavilion is located in Westminster, Colorado
. It opened in July 1995, and was the first stand-alone non-profit insect zoo in the United States. The 30000 ft2 facility is situated on 11 acres (4.5 ha) of land, and contains five main exhibit areas to teach visitors about butterflies and other invertebrates. The main exhibit is an indoor rain forest filled with 1200 free-flying tropical butterflies.
The Butterfly Pavilion is a publicly supported facility with most of its funding coming from admission fees, corporate sponsorship, and the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District
(SCFD) of Colorado. Because it imports non-native insect species, the Pavilion is regulated by the USDA.
(SCFD) as a Tier II organization in 1996, and in 1997 launched their first outreach program, the Bugmobile, which serves 20,000 students annually as of 2010. In 1997 the Pavilion was also recognized as the fastest growing cultural attraction in Denver. In 1998 the administrative offices were converted into Water's Edge, a tide pool exhibit.
In 2000 the Adult Education department was started, and in 2002 the Pavilion started offering accredited teacher enrichment courses in partnership with the Colorado School of Mines
. 2003 saw the start of construction for a 13000 square feet (1,207.7 m²) addition to the Pavilion, which was completed and opened in 2004. The new space included four classrooms, administrative offices, and a new exhibit space. In June 2007, the outdoor Dee Lidvall Discovery Garden was opened. The garden includes an educational amphitheater, habitat, sensory and xeriscape gardens, two gazebos, a patio, and a water feature with natural filtration. Its main purpose is to help link classroom education and the nature trail.
In 2008, the Pavilion’s curatorial department manager, Mary Ann Hamilton, served as a consultant for the NASA experiment “Butterflies and Spiders in Space.” She provided information for the teachers’ guide and assisted with ground control experiments at the Pavilion and in several classrooms in Colorado.
Crawl-A-See-Em lets visitors observe tarantula
s, leaf insects, scorpion
s, beetle
s and giant millipede
s, and even hold Rosie, a Chilean rose hair tarantula
.
Water's Edge is about animals in Atlantic and Pacific Ocean tide pools. Visitors can see and touch sea star
s, sea cucumber
s and horseshoe crab
s.
The Nature Trail is a 0.5 mile (0.80467 km) just outside the Pavilion along Big Dry Creek. Here visitors can see Colorado's native insects, prairie dogs, and rabbits, and maybe even a heron
, hawk
, or eagle
perched in a tree.
The outdoor Dee Lidvall Discovery Garden includes a butterfly garden planted with pincushion flower, cosmos
, nicotiana
and other colorful flowers to attract local butterflies, and a xeriscape garden sponsored by the Colorado Cactus and Succulent Society that includes dry land plants such as cactus
, hardy ice plant
, penstemon
, yarrow
and lavender
.
Westminster, Colorado
Westminster is a Home Rule Municipality in Adams and Jefferson counties in the U.S. state of Colorado. Westminster is a northwest suburb of Denver. The Westminster Municipal Center is located north-northwest of the Colorado State Capitol. The United States Census Bureau that the city population...
. It opened in July 1995, and was the first stand-alone non-profit insect zoo in the United States. The 30000 ft2 facility is situated on 11 acres (4.5 ha) of land, and contains five main exhibit areas to teach visitors about butterflies and other invertebrates. The main exhibit is an indoor rain forest filled with 1200 free-flying tropical butterflies.
The Butterfly Pavilion is a publicly supported facility with most of its funding coming from admission fees, corporate sponsorship, and the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District
Scientific and Cultural Facilities District
The Scientific and Cultural Facilities District is a special regional tax district of the State of Colorado that provides funding for art, music, theater, dance, zoology, botany, natural history, or cultural history organizations in the Denver metropolitan area.In 1988, voters in the Denver region...
(SCFD) of Colorado. Because it imports non-native insect species, the Pavilion is regulated by the USDA.
History
In 1990, the Rocky Mountain Butterfly Consortium was created with the intention of creating a public butterfly house. The Butterfly Pavilion and Insect Center, the first free-standing butterfly house and invertebrate zoo in the United States, was opened about 5 years later on July 15, 1995. It joined the Scientific and Cultural Facilities DistrictScientific and Cultural Facilities District
The Scientific and Cultural Facilities District is a special regional tax district of the State of Colorado that provides funding for art, music, theater, dance, zoology, botany, natural history, or cultural history organizations in the Denver metropolitan area.In 1988, voters in the Denver region...
(SCFD) as a Tier II organization in 1996, and in 1997 launched their first outreach program, the Bugmobile, which serves 20,000 students annually as of 2010. In 1997 the Pavilion was also recognized as the fastest growing cultural attraction in Denver. In 1998 the administrative offices were converted into Water's Edge, a tide pool exhibit.
In 2000 the Adult Education department was started, and in 2002 the Pavilion started offering accredited teacher enrichment courses in partnership with the Colorado School of Mines
Colorado School of Mines
The Colorado School of Mines is a small public teaching and research university devoted to engineering and applied science, with special expertise in the development and stewardship of the Earth's natural resources. Located in Golden, Colorado, CSM was ranked 29th, in America among national...
. 2003 saw the start of construction for a 13000 square feet (1,207.7 m²) addition to the Pavilion, which was completed and opened in 2004. The new space included four classrooms, administrative offices, and a new exhibit space. In June 2007, the outdoor Dee Lidvall Discovery Garden was opened. The garden includes an educational amphitheater, habitat, sensory and xeriscape gardens, two gazebos, a patio, and a water feature with natural filtration. Its main purpose is to help link classroom education and the nature trail.
In 2008, the Pavilion’s curatorial department manager, Mary Ann Hamilton, served as a consultant for the NASA experiment “Butterflies and Spiders in Space.” She provided information for the teachers’ guide and assisted with ground control experiments at the Pavilion and in several classrooms in Colorado.
Exhibits
Wings of the Tropics is a 7000 square feet (650.3 m²) tropical conservatory with over 1200 butterflies and 200 plant species from tropical rain-forests. On one side of the conservatory, visitors can watch the butterflies emerge from their chrisalides, and twice a day can watch the staff release them into the rain-forest. The Butterfly Pavilion purchases about 500 butterfly chrisalides each week from butterfly farms around the world.Crawl-A-See-Em lets visitors observe tarantula
Tarantula
Tarantulas comprise a group of often hairy and often very large arachnids belonging to the family Theraphosidae, of which approximately 900 species have been identified. Some members of the same Suborder may also be called "tarantulas" in the common parlance. This article will restrict itself to...
s, leaf insects, scorpion
Scorpion
Scorpions are predatory arthropod animals of the order Scorpiones within the class Arachnida. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by the pair of grasping claws and the narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back, ending with a venomous stinger...
s, beetle
Beetle
Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...
s and giant millipede
Millipede
Millipedes are arthropods that have two pairs of legs per segment . Each segment that has two pairs of legs is a result of two single segments fused together as one...
s, and even hold Rosie, a Chilean rose hair tarantula
Chilean rose tarantula
The Chilean rose tarantula , also known as the Chilean flame tarantula, Chilean fire tarantula or the Chilean red-haired tarantula or the Chilean rose hair tarantula , is probably the most common species of tarantula available in pet stores today, due to the large number of wild-caught specimens...
.
Water's Edge is about animals in Atlantic and Pacific Ocean tide pools. Visitors can see and touch sea star
Sea star
Starfish or sea stars are echinoderms belonging to the class Asteroidea. The names "starfish" and "sea star" essentially refer to members of the class Asteroidea...
s, sea cucumber
Sea cucumber
Sea cucumbers are echinoderms from the class Holothuroidea.They are marine animals with a leathery skin and an elongated body containing a single, branched gonad. Sea cucumbers are found on the sea floor worldwide. There are a number of holothurian species and genera, many of which are targeted...
s and horseshoe crab
Horseshoe crab
The Atlantic horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus, is a marine chelicerate arthropod. Despite its name, it is more closely related to spiders, ticks, and scorpions than to crabs. Horseshoe crabs are most commonly found in the Gulf of Mexico and along the northern Atlantic coast of North America...
s.
The Nature Trail is a 0.5 mile (0.80467 km) just outside the Pavilion along Big Dry Creek. Here visitors can see Colorado's native insects, prairie dogs, and rabbits, and maybe even a heron
Heron
The herons are long-legged freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae. There are 64 recognised species in this family. Some are called "egrets" or "bitterns" instead of "heron"....
, hawk
Hawk
The term hawk can be used in several ways:* In strict usage in Australia and Africa, to mean any of the species in the subfamily Accipitrinae, which comprises the genera Accipiter, Micronisus, Melierax, Urotriorchis and Megatriorchis. The large and widespread Accipiter genus includes goshawks,...
, or eagle
Eagle
Eagles are members of the bird family Accipitridae, and belong to several genera which are not necessarily closely related to each other. Most of the more than 60 species occur in Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just two species can be found in the United States and Canada, nine more in...
perched in a tree.
The outdoor Dee Lidvall Discovery Garden includes a butterfly garden planted with pincushion flower, cosmos
Cosmos
In the general sense, a cosmos is an orderly or harmonious system. It originates from the Greek term κόσμος , meaning "order" or "ornament" and is antithetical to the concept of chaos. Today, the word is generally used as a synonym of the word Universe . The word cosmos originates from the same root...
, nicotiana
Nicotiana
Nicotiana is a genus of herbs and shrubs of the nightshade family indigenous to North and South America, Australia, south west Africa and the South Pacific. Various Nicotiana species, commonly referred to as tobacco plants, are cultivated and grown to produce tobacco. Of all Nicotiana species,...
and other colorful flowers to attract local butterflies, and a xeriscape garden sponsored by the Colorado Cactus and Succulent Society that includes dry land plants such as cactus
Cactus
A cactus is a member of the plant family Cactaceae. Their distinctive appearance is a result of adaptations to conserve water in dry and/or hot environments. In most species, the stem has evolved to become photosynthetic and succulent, while the leaves have evolved into spines...
, hardy ice plant
Ice plant
- Plant common names :* Aizoaceae, the ice plant family* Carpobrotus chilensis* Carpobrotus edulis* Conicosia, narrow-leafed ice plants* Delosperma cooperi, Cooper's ice plant* Delosperma bosseranum...
, penstemon
Penstemon
Penstemon , Beard-tongue, is a large genus of North American and East Asian plants traditionally placed in the Scrophulariaceae family. Due to new genetic research, it has now been placed in the vastly expanded family Plantaginaceae...
, yarrow
Yarrow
Achillea millefolium or yarrow is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native to the Northern Hemisphere. In New Mexico and southern Colorado, it is called plumajillo, or "little feather", for the shape of the leaves. In antiquity, yarrow was known as herbal militaris, for its use in...
and lavender
Lavender
The lavenders are a genus of 39 species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. An Old World genus, distributed from Macaronesia across Africa, the Mediterranean, South-West Asia, Arabia, Western Iran and South-East India...
.