The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History invites the public to experience the wonder of “Butterflies Alive!”, opening at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 19 at the museum. The exhibit will continue through Sept. 16.
Featuring 30 species of butterflies, guests will escape into a wonderland and experience the marvel of more than 1,000 live butterflies fluttering freely throughout the Butterfly Pavilion.
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The lush garden in the Pavilion provides an enchanting home for the butterflies and a tranquil environment for guests to enjoy, filled with butterfly-friendly flowers, luscious greenery and quirky fountains.
While taking a stroll through the imaginative garden, guests will encounter butterflies of all sizes, shapes and colors. Among the hundreds of fluttering butterflies in the exhibit will be butterflies that are native to Santa Barbara County, including the Western Tiger Swallowtail, Pale Swallowtail, Cabbage White, Red Admiral, Painted Lady and Gulf Fritillary.
Guests will also have the opportunity to learn about butterflies as they encounter “Flutter Facts” on their way to the Pavilion that provide information about butterfly behaviors and their life cycles.
“Butterflies are beautiful and easy to see, making them great ambassadors for biodiversity — even someone who thinks he or she don’t like bugs can be engaged while watching a Monarch move from flower to flower or a Common Buckeye basking on a footpath,” said Maggie Sherrifs, community education coordinator at the museum. “Encounters like these can spark an interest in nature and, in turn, a conservation ethic that lasts a lifetime.”
Proper Butterfly Pavilion etiquette includes not touching the butterflies as their wings are fragile. In addition, we ask that guests silence their cell phones while in the pavilion, and watch their steps while walking through the gardens as butterflies tend to bask in the walkways. Also, no food, drink, pets or strollers are permitted in the pavilion.
In addition to experiencing “Butterflies Alive!,” guests can also visit DINOMANIA!, the new summer exhibit at the museum featuring Samson, a real T. rex skeleton, Kokoro dinosaur animatronics, and “Be the Dinosaur: Life in the Cretaceous” interactive dinosaur simulation.
Butterflies Alive! is sponsored in part by Deckers Outdoor Corporation, the LLWW Foundation, Riviera Insurance, Mission Wealth Management, the Santa Barbara Airport and the Museum League.
Click here for more information about Butterflies Alive! and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
— Valeria Martinez de Andino is a public relations coordinator for the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.