The butterfly looked plain, almost like a moth, as it rested on newly placed mulch at the Santa Ana Zoo. Having recently emerged from its chrysalis, its 2-inch folded wing blended into the brownish landscape, easy to miss.
But then the Blue morpho fluttered away, exposing its eye-popping, cobalt blue, iridescent palette trimmed in black.
“Look at that blue one,” a woman exclaimed. “He’s glorious!”
The Santa Ana Zoo has debuted a new exhibit, Flight – A Live Butterfly Experience, that celebrates the diversity of the winged insects, letting visitors get up an up-close look.
“We are always looking to connect the community to nature, and this is a new experience, never before offered at the zoo,” Manager Ethan Fisher said. “Visitors will love seeing the beautiful butterflies and learning about the steps they can take to help native pollinators thrive in our backyard.”
Emmy Shiroma, 3, gets a fleeting view of a Blue morpho butterfly as it flutters past her at the new Flight — A Live Butterfly Experience exhibit at the Santa Ana Zoo on Monday, July 18, 2022. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Terry Payne reassures her granddaughter, Celia, 2, who didn’t like a butterfly invading her space. They were at Flight, a 2,000 square-foot aviary featuring 30 species of butterflies, the Santa Ana Zoo’s new exhibit, on Monday, July 18, 2022. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Wendy Pray, back left, her grandson Michael McCarter, 7, and daughter Peyton, 11, enter Santa Ana Zoo’s new butterfly exhibit through double doors, as a butterfly tries to escape on Monday, July 18, 2022. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Pupae hang from a stick before they transform into butterflies at Santa Ana Zoo’s new Flight exhibit on
Monday, July 18, 2022. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Peyton Pray, 11, holds a butterfly that landed on her at at Santa Ana Zoo’s new Flight exhibit on Monday, July 18, 2022. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Santa Ana Zoo’s new 2,000-plus-square-foot butterfly aviary, Flight — A Live Butterfly Experience, features 30 species of Central American butterflies. Conner Nguyen, 2, checks it out on Monday, July 18, 2022. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Santa Ana Zoo’s Registered Veterinary Technician and Curator of Health, Shani Remer, gets ready to release butterflies into the new exhibit, Flight — Live Butterfly Experience on Monday, July 18, 2022. She collects the insects twice a day from an “Emergence Room” after the pupae become butterflies. . (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Conner Nguyen, 2, checks out a butterfly at Santa Ana Zoo’s new exhibit, Flight — A Live Butterfly Experience, on Monday, July 18, 2022. The aviary features 30 species of Central American butterflies. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A Blue morpho butterfly is scooped up by Santa Ana Zoo’s Registered Veterinary Technician and Curator of Health, Shani Remer, shortly after it emerges from a chrysalis on
Monday, July 18, 2022. She collects about 50 a-day from the Emergence Room and then places them in an aviary where the public can interact with them in a new exhibit —Flight — Live Butterfly Experience. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A butterfly lands on 2-year-old Celia Payne’s flowered leggings while she visits Santa Ana Zoo’s new exhibit, Flight — A Live Butterfly Experience, on Monday, July 18, 2022. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A butterfly lands on 2-year-old Celia Payne’s flowered leggings while she visits Santa Ana Zoo’s new exhibit, Flight — A Live Butterfly Experience, on Monday, July 18, 2022. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A Blue-frosted banner butterfly hangs out on a bright yellow pedal in Santa Ana Zoo’s new 2,000 square-foot aviary on Monday, July 18, 2022. The exhibit features 30 species of Central American butterflies and pollinator-attracting flowers. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Butterflies flutter past visitors to Santa Ana Zoo’s new 2,000-plus-square-foot aviary, Flight — A Live Butterfly Experience. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Two Blue morpho butterflies fly around Santa Ana Zoo’s new exhibit, Flight — A Live Butterfly Experience, on
Monday, July 18, 2022. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Terry Payne reassures her granddaughter, Celia, 2, who didn’t like a butterfly invading her space. They were at Flight, a 2,000 square foot aviary featuring 30 species of butterflies, the Santa Ana Zoo’s new exhibit, on Monday, July 18, 2022. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Santa Ana Zoo’s Registered Veterinary Technician and Curator of Health, Shani Remer, collects a Myscelia cyaniris butterfly, shortly after it emerges from a chrysalis on Monday, July 18, 2022. She gathers about 50 a-day from the “Emergence Room” and then places them in an aviary where the public can interact with them in a new exhibit —Flight — Live Butterfly Experience. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Albert Partida keeps daughter Natalia close after she becomes scared of the butterflies on Monday, July 18, 2022, at Santa Ana Zoo’s newest exhibit, Flight — A Live Butterfly Experience. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The 2,000-plus-square-foot outdoor aviary, with pollinator-attracting flowers, hosts 30 different species of butterflies in a growing collection.
Each Friday the zoo receives a shipment of pupai, or chrysalises, from Costa Rica Entomological Supply, a family run butterfly farm in Central America.
Hardy travelers, they are shipped in padded cardboard boxes via Fed Ex or air cargo. Upon arrival at the zoo they are sorted and then hung on a wooden dowel, attached with hot glue and foam, until the butterfly is ready to emerge.
Shani Remer, a registered veterinary technician and the zoo’s curator of health, works in the “emergence chamber,” where the creatures transform themselves.
“It’s fascinating and cool to see them emerge, knowing they have a relatively short life cycle,” Remer said of their approximate two to three weeks of life. “They put so much energy into turning into this gorgeous butterfly.”
Twice a day she collects the ones that have emerged from their chrysalises, about 40 a day, as visitors look on.
“I want that job,” Frankie Pray told to her mother, Wendy, as she watched Remer gather the different species of butterflies into a netted container.
“You can do any job you want. You just have to go to school and study,” Wendy Pray advised her 10-year-old daughter.
Remer carried the butterflies into the aviary and released them around a curious group of children. The public is encouraged to wear bright clothing to attract the butterflies to land on them, but they are discouraged from touching the insects.
Through a series of signs, the exhibit explains the short, yet powerful, lifecycle of a butterfly and its impact on the planet.
According to the Butterfly Conservation website, butterfly-conservation.org, the winged creatures “have been around for at least 50 million years and probably first evolved some 150 million years ago.”
The pollinators help with food supply. Without them, “the human race and most of the earth’s ecosystems would not survive,” the zoo’s exhibit warns.
Aviary’s double-door entry helps assure none of the butterflies, which are not native to the local environment, escape and potentially cause ecological damage. Clippings from pruned plants are either frozen or bleached so no larvae or eggs escape. And there’s a mirror for visitors to inspect themselves to make sure no butterfly is hitching a ride out.
The butterfly exhibit will run through the end of September and return in the spring.
The zoo’s mission is to save wildlife through fun, adventure and learning, Fisher said. “And everyone loves butterflies.”
If you go:
The Flight – A Live Butterfly Experience is included with Santa Ana Zoo admission, but has capacity limits.
When: The zoo is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily
Cost: $9 children and seniors, $12 adults
Where: The Santa Ana Zoo at Prentice Park is at 1801 Chestnut Ave.
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