Butterfly Farming

C

Crocodile

Member
Hello! To everyone, and especially to all of you who are more knowledgeable than me (i.e. ~100% of this forum) - what is the general consensus on the ethics of zoos purchasing butterflies from their home countries for our public exhibits? I find myself being uneasy about wild-sourcing for other types of animals, like fish for aquariums, but butterfly farming seems like a total conservation win. What are all of y’all’s thoughts?

And while I’m thinking about butterfly exhibit-sourcing, where are some farms that zoos source butterflies from? I’ve found references to larger butterfly exhibits sourcing from countries like Costa Rica, Ecuador, Thailand, and Kenya, but not a lot of specifics beyond that. Thanks for reading/responding!
 
My secondary motive is compiling a list of ethical butterfly farms for speculative-exhibit design purposes. ZIMS can give me a pretty good jumping-off point for where most zoo animals are/are coming from, but this whole concept of butterfly farms is pretty foreign to me (but fascinating)! From the Butterfly Pavilion’s blog I found: El Bosque Nuevo in Costa Rica and Heliconius Works in Ecuador.
 
A lot of butterflies are bred on site in many cases, most regularly seen species are not difficult to raise. Given lepidopterans are generally quite prolific its not hard to keep populations going with a little effort.
I know very little re shipping in tropical species, though I know several breeders here in the States raise both native and tropical species.
 
Bengal Tiger said:
Many zoos with breed butterflies themselves.
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Not true to my best knowledge of the European Zoo , at least.

Butterflies are imported frequently through farms in Central-America such as Costa Rica. To my best knowledge the zoos in the Netherlands import them together fom Costa Rica and then have them shipped to a distribution place in London, possibly other European facilities partake in this as well.

Breeding butterflies in zoos is not a easy task to my best knowledge.
 
Ursus said:
Not true to my best knowledge of the European Zoo , at least.

Butterflies are imported frequently through farms in Central-America such as Costa Rica. To my best knowledge the zoos in the Netherlands import them together fom Costa Rica and then have them shipped to a distribution place in London, possibly other European facilities partake in this as well.

Breeding butterflies in zoos is not a easy task to my best knowledge.
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Not so much "not easy" as requiring a spacious greenhouse with all of the attendant costs for energy and labor
 
Hi,

This is a very small industry overall, and will never have a big positive impact other than locally. But butterfly farms in tropics usually breed their butterflies and ship pupae. So a conservation win.

You may also do a follow up of the article linked by Zooplantman, which was published in 2011. In ten years, problems outlined there did not materialize.

By the way, insects have very little nervous system and apparently cannot feel pain. So concerns about lack of enrichment etc for birds or mammals in zoos don't apply to them.
 
Bengal Tiger said:
Many zoos with breed butterflies themselves.
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When I went to the Florida Museum of Natural History, the keepers, during the butterfly release presentation, said that the plants they have in the aviary are the kind that is inedible for the caterpillars of the butterflies displayed to avoif having a breeding population which could be invasive in case there are any escapes.
 
PossumRoach said:
When I went to the Florida Museum of Natural History, the keepers, during the butterfly release presentation, said that the plants they have in the aviary are the kind that is inedible for the caterpillars of the butterflies displayed to avoif having a breeding population which could be invasive in case there are any escapes.
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Interesting, I assumed that they do due to the fact that many zoos with butterflies constantly have live chrysalises on display. @Ursus, do European zoos have chrysalises on display usually?
 
Bengal Tiger said:
I see, well, i do suppose that makes a lot of sense, though aren't the chrysalises very delicate?
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Yeah but not as delicate as butterflies themselves. Most chrysalis are shipped in cardboard boxes, in foam holders. You do want to avoid dropping the individual chrysalis however and they need to be handled gently.
 
Bengal Tiger said:
Interesting, I assumed that they do due to the fact that many zoos with butterflies constantly have live chrysalises on display. @Ursus, do European zoos have chrysalises on display usually?
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They do, to my knowledge every zoo in the NL I've been to have pupa stages on display
 
Bengal Tiger said:
Interesting, I assumed that they do due to the fact that many zoos with butterflies constantly have live chrysalises on display. @Ursus, do European zoos have chrysalises on display usually?
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Here in the UK, every zoo I've been to that keeps butterflies has a little cabinet with developing chrysalis on display. But I don't know how many breed their butterflies on site or just order in shipments of the chrysalis.
One example I can give is a tiny three-acre zoo in the North of England called the Lakeland Wildlife Oasis, they have a butterfly walkthrough but during my last visit in November there were no fully grown butterflies, only chrysalis, and a keeper explained that the zoo was holding off on sourcing any more chrysalis until the weather is warmer and the butterflies are more likely to survive overnight temperatures. His use of the word "sourcing" means they likely just order in fresh chrysalis as needed and don't breed anything on site.
 
Zooplantman said:
While some butterfly exhibits breed, most import. You might find this interesting
https://www.naba.org/pubs/ab221/Amb221_butterfly_house_industry.pdf

In addition to any conservation by-products of the industry we should remember the ecological costs of shipping butterflies from the opposite side of the planet
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This paper was extremely helpful, thank you!

As for a general list of suppliers, LPS LLC out of Colorado ( Home ) seems to be the dominant importer in America and a great place to start looking at the diversity of sources for butterflies. Per their current catalog, they import from at least 15 partners in Colombia, the Philippines, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Malaysia, Belize, Kenya, and (most surprisingly to me) Australia.

The Stratford-upon-Avon Butterfly Farm in the UK ( Stratford-Upon-Avon Butterfly Farm : A wonderful world of an exotic rainforest with hundreds of the world's most spectacular and colourful butterflies flying all around ) supplies much of Europe and sources from over 20 partners, including at least most of the above mentioned countries, along with Thailand and Tanzania.

IABES, the International Association of Butterfly Exhibitors and Suppliers, has a useful list of current members, some zoos and other exhibitors, but also suppliers from around the globe. Current Members

I hope some of you find this as interesting as I am!
 
I am quite curious how this butterfly farming develops.

In a zoo world and horticulture world, there are common and rare species, challenging species and easy species. Are there any especially rare and sought after live butterflies, an equivalent of giant pandas?

Is any research being done together with butterfly farming?

Are there any butterfly conservation programs related to farms?
 
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