I’s told the butterfly house got removed because the zookeepers found the butterflys were actually demonstrating really stressed behaviours when people walked through, but i don’t know how true that is.
FAQ Perth Zoo
Perth Zoo’s Butterfly House was built as a temporary exhibit with limited funds and operated from 1995 to 2001. It stood where African Painted Dog exhibit now spreads.
Butterfly houses require a significant amount of energy to maintain the kind of temperatures, humidity and bio-security necessary to keep and breed butterflies from around the world in Western Australia. Suitable pupae (young caterpillars) also need to be imported into the State to display a good collection of butterfly species. This makes keeping and responsibly maintaining a butterfly collection quite a carbon unfriendly activity compared to other zoo activities.
This makes more sense (expensive to run) than butterflies being stressed. Melbourne Zoo has a butterfly house as well, and it shows no sign of going away.
The butterflies themselves land on people and get photographed all the time. They don’t seem to be shy at all.
I’s told the butterfly house got removed because the zookeepers found the butterflys were actually demonstrating really stressed behaviours when people walked through, but i don’t know how true that is.
FAQ Perth Zoo Perth Zoo’s Butterfly House was built as a temporary exhibit with limited funds and operated from 1995 to 2001. It stood where African Painted Dog exhibit now spreads.
What?? I thought it was there longer than that.
This makes more sense (expensive to run) than butterflies being stressed. Melbourne Zoo has a butterfly house as well, and it shows no sign of going away.
The butterflies themselves land on people and get photographed all the time. They don’t seem to be shy at all.