Escondido, California - The San Diego Zoo Safari Park wildlife care specialists know how popular the Safari Park’s annual spring Butterfly Jungle event is to the thousands of guests who visit each year. While the Safari Park is temporarily closed to on-grounds visitors due to COVID-19 restrictions, dedicated teams of wildlife care specialists and horticulturists are still busy working hard to care for the thousands of butterflies, plants and other wildlife that live inside the Hidden Jungle aviary.
Effective today (Monday, March 30, 2020), the San Diego Zoo Safari Park is bringing Butterfly Jungle to anyone with a smartphone or computer, via a new live video cam presented by Wheelhouse Credit Union. Guests at home can view livestreaming video from Butterfly Jungle at sdzsafaripark.org/butterfly-cam and take a visual “walk” through the rain forest habitat. Here, online viewers can see some of the thousands of colorful, eye-catching butterflies as they flutter lightly through the warm air to find nectar-filled flowers, or catch of glimpse of up to 22 exotic bird species—including the critically endangered Bali myna and blue-crowned laughingthrush that reside inside the aviary, among the lush greenery.
“Wheelhouse Credit Union is pleased to be the presenting sponsor of Butterfly Jungle for a fourth consecutive year,” said Lisa Paul-Hill, president and CEO of Wheelhouse Credit Union. “Our hope is that bringing Butterfly Jungle straight into people’s homes will provide some much needed joy, until they can once again experience these beautiful creatures in person.”
Butterfly populations all over the world—including our local butterfly populations here in San Diego—play an important role in their environment as pollinators for native plant species. Online visitors can find out how they can help support local butterfly populations in their own backyard in the ZOONOOZ online story “Blooms for Butterflies,” at zoonooz.sandiegozoo.org. Selecting specific plants that attract and feed butterflies will encourage them to hang out in a home garden in their various life stages—from egg to caterpillar to butterfly—providing hours of viewing pleasure.
The San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park remain committed in their effort to help conserve butterflies, as well as supporting sustainable butterfly farming. If the farmers in rain forest areas of Central, South and North America that supply the butterfly pupae weren’t raising butterflies, they might be clear-cutting their land to plant crops or raise cattle. Instead, when they raise butterflies, they leave the land in its pristine state and allow butterfly populations to thrive.
At the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, more than 1 million guests each year see animals in herds of mixed species, in expansive habitats. Safari tours offer savanna views of African and Asian animals, trails take visitors on treks to experience Australian and North American habitats—plus, there are opportunities for up-close encounters and unique behind-the-scenes perspectives. Known for its leadership in rhino conservation, the Safari Park is home to the Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center, which is devoted to groundbreaking work to bring back the northern white rhino. As visitors discover the rare and endangered species at the Safari Park, they are directly contributing, through admission and on-grounds sales, to the efforts of San Diego Zoo Global, an international nonprofit conservation organization that works to fight extinction through recovery efforts for plants and animals worldwide. To learn more, visit sdzsafaripark.org,
