By Sara Stevens, Aquatics Manager, Butterfly Pavilion

When it comes to conservation, zoos and aquariums are often reactionary, trying to protect a species or habitat after the initial threat has become established. This historic model often results from a lack of resources. It takes time, money, and manpower to effectively implement conservation work around the globe. It’s like trying to fight a raging fire with limited water, so most organizations are forced to target their efforts at providing the greatest impact as efficiently as possible. One of the biggest issues in animal conservation is how much we don’t know about a species. When it comes to invertebrates, animals that are often the foundations of our ecosystems, this lack of understanding can lead to catastrophic ecosystem collapses. While it is impossible to learn the needs of every animal that exists, Butterfly Pavilion has worked to develop two highly effective strategies for conservation success through animal husbandry.

Husbandry on the Fly

How do you care for an animal when you don’t know what it needs? In the year 2021, it may seem unthinkable that there are animals in the world that have not been cared for by zoos and aquariums. While zoos and aquariums have cared for thousands of animals over the years, there are still millions more, many invertebrates, which zoological institutions have never held. This means that when an emergency strikes and these animals require human care to ensure their survival, the stakes can be very high!

At Butterfly Pavilion we strive to maximize our impact when it comes to protecting invertebrate species around the globe. This has led to a proactive approach to conservation through animal husbandry that revolves around being a resource to large, cooperative programs like our participation in the Association of Zoos & Aquariums-Florida Reef Tract Rescue Project (AZA-FRTRP) and developing rearing protocols for species of concern that remain poorly understood in case intervention is necessary in the future, like our Hudsonian emerald dragonfly program.

Our work with the AZA-FRTRP centers on caring for healthy coral rescued ahead of the stony coral tissue loss disease zone in the Florida Reef Tract. These healthy colonies of coral will serve as the foundation of future restoration efforts. Due to the rapid pace of the disease’s spread, the large number of specimens requiring care to preserve the genetic diversity of the species, and the lack of knowledge on the specialized needs of the species, this project has become a first-of-its-kind response that could change the future of coral conservation.

When the call for aid went out in 2018, our team knew we could leverage our animal expertise and our educational platform to not only safeguard these coral, but also to share their story with an audience mostly unaware of their peril. Due to our limited behind-the-scenes space and the highly specialized needs of the coral, we quickly realized the only place we could house these new animals was on display for our guests. This was a huge risk since we did not know how difficult their care would be, what their condition would be when they arrived, or how our guests would react to viewing an active research project. At Butterfly Pavilion we believe understanding is best achieved through transparency, which meant putting the science on display and allowing our guests the opportunity to participate in the journey with us. It allows our guests to learn as we discover new things, mourn with us when we have losses, and celebrate when we have triumphs. It allows us to foster a connection that could not exist if these animals remained behind closed doors.

While the initial risk created stress for our animal care staff, we found it to be revolutionary for our guests. In the year we have cared for these corals, we have seen growth and health beyond what we could have ever imagined. While we did lose a colony that arrived to us after having been infected with an unknown disease, the majority of our corals have flourished. This wasn’t just luck but the culmination of hours of extra time dedicated to supporting their care, weekly calls working with other holding facilities to troubleshoot health issues in real time, and innovating new care techniques on the fly. In addition, the exhibit has managed to capture the attention of our guests in a way we never saw before. Overall, the program is not merely a conservation success as we safeguard the future of the Florida Reef Tract, but also an educational success as well.

Conservation Foresight

Our second strategy for conservation through care is more proactive. In 2017, Butterfly Pavilion identified a need to pursue dragonfly conservation. Dragonflies are important indicators of ecosystem health and their presence, or absence, can have large impacts on local wildlife. Dragonflies are valuable predators helping to control mosquito and midge populations. They are also a valuable food source for fish and birds. This makes them an important animal to monitor, like a canary in the coal mine.  When their populations begin to decline there can be vast cascading consequences. We still have much to learn about dragonfly conservation, particularly the best ways to help bolster populations that start to decline.

In 2017, Butterfly Pavilion launched a program to learn more about the husbandry needs of native Colorado dragonfly species as a way to proactively conserve dragonflies in our state. Colorado provides a variety of unique habitats, particularly along the Front Range. These alpine and subalpine ecosystems are incredibly narrow and fragile, making the animals that call it home vulnerable to even minor ecological and manmade changes.  The species we became particularly concerned about was the Hudsonian emerald (Somatochlora hudsonica). This jet black dragonfly with emerald eyes only occurs in a handful of locations in Colorado and over the years has become more difficult to find.

In cooperation with Boulder County Open Space wildlife biologists, we created a plan to develop husbandry protocols to support rearing the Hudsonian emerald under human care.  This began by working with a more common cousin called the Mountain emerald (Somatochlora semicircularis). In 2017 we collected eggs from female Mountain emeralds to hatch and rear at Butterfly Pavilion. These baby dragonflies spent three years growing in our aquatic systems under the care of our staff. In June of 2020, we had our first dragonflies emerge as adults, and we released them back into the wild. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the first time anyone successfully reared this species under human care. Thanks to the success of this three-year effort, this summer our scientists will venture into the wilderness to collect eggs from female Hudsonian emeralds to rear at Butterfly Pavilion.

This important step was necessary to help us systematically and rigorously develop techniques that will help support future conservation needs. By being proactive and monitoring invertebrate populations we can intervene earlier. This approach can often provide more effective conservation while utilizing fewer resources. As Butterfly Pavilion continues its invertebrate conservation around the world we will continue to push for a proactive model, even as we help address crises that develop rapidly.