Butterfly Pavilion Announces First Annual Butterfly Quest Monitoring Project Launching February 22, Inviting Guests to Release their Inner-Scientist

Participants Assist with Butterfly Research in Fun, Interactive, and Educational Event

Westminster, CO – February 9, 2022 – Butterfly Pavilion introduces Butterfly Quest, a fun, engaging, and interactive event in the Wings of the Tropics butterfly conservatory where the guests emulate “scientists.”  The experience offers a unique opportunity to assist with Butterfly Pavilion invertebrate research, while exploring the world of animal behavior. Visitors observe tagged butterflies in Butterfly Pavilion’s tropical conservatory, record meaningful data, and share discoveries — all on an easy-to-use form on their phone. By participating in Butterfly Quest, guests are helping our scientists shape animal welfare here and in zoos around the world!

“Butterfly Pavilion is always seeking new approaches to understand and observe the lifespan of different invertebrate species to lead the way in improving invertebrate welfare,” Shiran Hershcovich, Lepidopterist Manager at Butterfly Pavilion. “Butterfly Quest is an immersive experience to fuel our guests’ sense of curiosity and exploration as they discover butterflies in a fresh new way.”

Butterfly Quest is a longevity study, research that allows scientists to learn how long an animal or plant lives in a specific environment.  When a new butterfly emerges in the butterfly conservatory’s chrysalis chamber, the research team tags it with a special sticker and number.  Then, during Butterfly Quest participants add momentum to the study, which can be time-consuming for scientists, by helping track tagged butterflies and report findings that capture information such as how long butterflies live, the way they act, and if changes are needed in animal care.

Butterfly Quest Admission 

February 22 – March 20, 2022

9:00AM – 5:00PM every day

Non-Member: Adult – $14.50 • Senior – $12.50 • Child – $9.50

Members: Free admission

Special Butterfly Quest ticket packs can save you up to $16 off admission and include one Bug Bucket giving kids everything they need to observe invertebrates in their own backyard!

To learn more and purchase tickets, visit: https://butterflies.org/event/butterfly-quest 

Butterfly Pavilion Community Science

Guests can extend their involvement beyond Butterfly Quest at the zoo by volunteering in Butterfly Pavilion Community Science outdoor programs to help strengthen Colorado communities and save nature’s tiny giants this spring through the fall. For those who love the outdoors, care about the environment, and want to be part of a fun and engaging activity with scientific value, there are multiple programs to choose from, suitable for all audiences, including Butterfly Monitoring, Dragonfly Monitoring and Urban Prairies Project involving land restoration efforts.

These conservation research projects help monitor various populations, prevent extinction, and halt declines that result in the imperiled status of invertebrate species.  By participating in these community science programs as a volunteer, community members are directly contributing to improving invertebrate conservation, environmental sustainability and informing local policy, as well as getting outdoors and having fun with great people.  These projects not only gather important ecological information, but they also help educate and engage the public in invertebrate conservation and research.

About Butterfly Pavilion

Butterfly Pavilion has been part of the Colorado community since 1995 and is the first Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA)-accredited, stand-alone, non-profit invertebrate zoo in the world, currently occupying a 30,000-square foot facility situated on an 11-acre campus provided by the City of Westminster, Colorado. Butterfly Pavilion’s mission is to foster an appreciation of butterflies and other invertebrates while educating the public about the need for conservation of threatened habitats in the tropics and around the world.

Beyond Colorado and the United States, Butterfly Pavilion conservationists are doing important invertebrate research projects around the world from Mongolia and Saudi Arabia to Peru and Indonesia. Closer to home, a new Butterfly Pavilion Baseline development will open in Broomfield, Colorado in 2025 setting the global standard for invertebrate science and conservation. The $55M, 81,000-square-foot facility will include greatly expanded guest experiences, world-class research labs and a much larger zoological facility.

Learn more at www.butterflies.org