St. Louis Butterfly Garden

One of the things we love about St. Louis is the Butterfly House. Butterfly gardens are hard to come by in Memphis. Both the Botanic Garden and Memphis Zoo used to have open air butterfly gardens. The Botanic Garden still has a butterfly garden listed on their visitors map, but for some reason that area has been overgrown and neglected for the past several years. The Memphis Zoo did away with the butterfly garden a few years ago and Beth and I were very disappointed. Thankfully this summer the Memphis Zoo unveiled their new butterfly exhibit! It's not nearly as nice as the one in St. Louis but at least we have butterflies again!

What makes the St. Louis Butterfly House so nice is that they have a "greenhouse" type structure that makes it possible to exhibit the butterflies year-round. They also have an outdoor natural habitat. Before entering the enclosed exhibit, visitors can view a short movie on the life cycle of the butterfly. The boys love watching this and learn something new everytime they watch it. Here they are as the movie starts:




And here are a few pictures from inside the exhibit:




Here the boys are taking turns identifying butterflies with the chart provided by the Butterfly House: