The Butterfly Pavilion: worth winging in for a visit
Wait patiently at the Butterfly Pavilion and you may find yourself a landing pad for a Blue Morph, with its pretty, pastel colors — or maybe a Monarch, all orange and black, like Halloween on wings.
When you stop by this sanctuary just off the turnpike halfway between Boulder and Denver, you'll find more than 1,200 live butterflies: 250 species from nine countries. Many come from the tropics. Others are native to Colorado, and they flutter about here in the lovely outdoor gardens.
Butterflies, though, are just the beginning of what the Butterfly Pavilion has to offer. This was the first standalone zoo in the United States for invertebrates — animals without a backbone.
Some of those are relatively large, such as the horseshoe crabs and live sea stars that you can meet in the Touch Tank. Others are much smaller: ladybugs or other kinds of beetles. With its various camps, classes and family workshops, The Butterfly Pavilion is definitely the place to come to learn that one out of every five animals in the world is a beetle.
There is a lot to discover in the 7,000-square-foot tropical rainforest and in the surrounding 11 acres of public gardens. It's a unique experience every time you visit, because new creatures are constantly being brought in.
In addition to all those spineless animals, there are land and water turtles, frogs and fish. Along the half mile nature loop outside, you might see beavers, bald eagles and prairie dogs.
Besides the Tropical Conservatory, there are other exhibits: Water's Edge, the Discovery Garden and Shrunk, where you can pretend that you're the size of a caterpillar as you watch giant insects that actually move. At Crawl-A-See-Em, you can watch as children bravely hold Rosie, the Pavilion's scary-looking but docile Chilean rose hair tarantula.
You'll come away amazed at such sights — and glad that you spent a few hours among the beetles and the butterflies.
Posted on Apr 6, 2011 by David Zindell
