Matt Polner is the Aquatics Manager for Butterfly Pavilion. He joined the organization in 2024, where he curates our facility’s aquarium collection. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science and Policy from the University of South Florida and has more than a decade of experience in AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums. Matt started his career as an educator at Busch Gardens Tampa, bringing guests up-close with more than 20 species of African wildlife. He served as a biologist at The Florida Aquarium and cared for coral reefs, seahorses, sea turtles, and was involved with teleost fish aquaculture programs to provide aquariums with sustainable livestock. During his time as a senior keeper at the Oklahoma City Zoo, Matt worked closely with sharks and stingrays, endangered and venomous reptiles and amphibians, and large-scale life support systems. Matt then oversaw the Akron Zoo’s aquarium gallery, working with invertebrates including giant pacific octopuses, jellies and nettles, a rare blue American lobster, and more.

As an animal care manager at Butterfly Pavilion, Matt oversees all aquarium operations in our Water’s Edge gallery including collections planning and animal acquisition, husbandry protocols, staff oversight, budgetary development, and research projects. Matt brings skills in water quality, life support, exhibit design and maintenance, animal quarantine, animal training, aquaculture and reproduction, dive programs, and animal welfare and enrichment.

Matt’s interests include crewed space exploration history, fossil hunting, natural history collections, and carnivorous plant husbandry. Matt currently serves on the board of directors for The Space Museum and Grissom Center, a spaceflight history museum located south of St. Louis.