March 14 is National Learn About Butterflies Day. When you think of zoos, butterflies might not necessarily come to mind. But you might be surprised to find out that a large majority of zoos either put butterflies on display, create areas in the zoo where butterflies can thrive, or conduct work outside the zoo to promote the advancement of butterflies. The result is the opportunity to visit some of the country’s top butterfly exhibits.
Butterfly houses at zoos can range from seasonal exhibits, to greenhouse type areas that remain open year round, to even some that are gardens where butterflies might land. Success rate of having a butterfly encounter varies at these locations, much like it would for other animals. Key factors of a good butterfly house include lots of attractive floral arrangements, enough room to move around, and a variety of different butterflies.
We looked back at our butterfly experiences and present to you our Top Butterfly Exhibits from the zoos we’ve visited. These rankings took into account the encounter we had on the specific day we visited, as well as the overall rating of the butterfly house.
5. Brookfield Zoo – Brookfield’s butterfly exhibit is seasonal, and costs extra for non-members. The greenery and flowers in here are very nice. The butterflies tend to stay away from visitors, attaching themselves to the green netting that serves as the covering to the exhibit, but you can get some good photo opportunities as they tend to land on the flowers as well.
4. Detroit Zoo – At the Detroit Zoo, if you come in the main entrance you will see the Butterfly building immediately, straight ahead of you. It’s an older building, but it’s a staple at the zoo. In addition to butterflies, this building has a walk-thru aviary. It’s definitely worth a visit.
3. Saint Louis Zoo – We admittedly didn’t find this exhibit on our first two trips to the St. Louis Zoo, but tucked in by the insect building we eventually made our way to it. Greenery and flowers are nice, but the walkways are a bit crowded – could be a bit bigger. Regardless, it’s a nice setup and we enjoyed walking through it. Like others on this list that combine it with other exhibits, it’s a good combination next to the insects.
2. Tennessee Aquarium – Straying away from our typical zoo lists, the Tennessee Aquarium had to be included here. They have two separate buildings, and the top floor of one of these buildings has a butterfly exhibit. They do butterfly releases as well, which was cool to be a part of.
- Como Park Zoo – Hands down the Como Park Zoo takes the prize as top Butterfly Exhibit in our opinion. We had an absolutely awesome time here. We were sure to get in line early so that we could get a chance to release butterflies. Because of the butterfly release, the butterflies are very active. We had more butterflies land on our kids in this than we have in all of our other experiences combined! This exhibit was also plenty big enough to account for a large number of visitors.
Looking for more butterfly exhibits to visit? Check out this blog from 2016 on some of the best Butterfly exhibits in the United States.
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