Strolling the grounds of the Santa Barbara Pure Historical past Museum is, by any account, a year-round pleasure. Previous Chad (the full-size solid of a blue whale skeleton) and the halls of reveals, one finds themselves tucked behind the grounds of the Santa Barbara Mission, hidden amongst mighty oak timber and a trickling creek, whereas the towers of the Mission peek from above the foliage. Nevertheless, in summer season, the museum is graced by greater than heat climate: the shimmering colours of butterflies within the annual Butterflies Alive! exhibit.
At Butterflies Alive!, which can run till September 4, the museum’s Sprague Butterfly Pavilion hosts greater than two dozen Costa Rican butterfly species. The favored exhibit permits visitors to step right into a bountiful grove of coloration, each within the fluttering bugs in vivid blue, inexperienced, and yellow, together with the flowering flora that home the tropical visitors. Consequently, the expertise is not like most museum fare. Whereas most reveals are stored behind panes of glass, within the butterfly pavilion a bright-green malachite would possibly come out of the sky and land in your shoulder. Extra experiential than instructive, Butterflies Alive! demonstrates the quick and inexplicable magic in nature, as plain as it’s thrilling.
Jimmy Friery, the museum’s butterfly coordinator, oversees greater than 1,000 butterflies of a dozen completely different species, tending to them from their arrival to Santa Barbara as chrysalises to their blossoming within the Sprague Pavilion. Fittingly clad in a butterfly tee and hat, Friery spoke of this yr’s herd with the reverence of a shepherd.
“That is our second yr with Costa Rican species,” he mentioned with pleasure. The butterflies on the exhibit are a privilege held by solely a choose few locations in America.
“You received’t see a blue morpho anyplace else however right here,” he mentioned, gesturing to a radiant blue and black butterfly. To not point out that the tropical butterflies are merely “cooler,” added Friery, “for lack of a greater time period.”
For Friery, the butterfly enterprise has been full of surprises. Since he began working within the Butterfly Pavilion in 2020, he has discovered that the world of butterflies goes far deeper than one would think about.
“There’s an entire trade round this,” he mentioned, “farmers in Costa Rica transport pupae all around the globe for butterfly reveals.”
Because it seems, the work of elevating butterflies contrasts tremendously with the carefree bugs themselves.
“It is a actually troublesome course of to get the butterflies to maturity,” Friery mentioned, involving light therapy of the dormant chrysalids and cautious monitoring of strain and humidity. For such delicate creatures, the work can usually be lower than delicate, together with cleansing the buildup of meconium — “butterfly poop,” Friery mentioned with a grimace.
Nevertheless, it’s the grace of the bugs that’s the actual reward, for Friery and the museum’s visitors alike. With the ability to witness the brilliance of the bugs brings guests from across the globe to the Santa Barbara Pure Historical past Museum, providing a transformative alternative to attach with nature, as many visitors uncover long-forgotten connections to the pure world. “That’s at all times actually reassuring to see,” mentioned Friery. “You get slowed down within the day-to-day,” and the spark of marvel that the butterflies invigorate may cause a deep and emotional expertise.
The impact is palpable, an unbridled pleasure sustained for the 10-minute stroll by means of the butterfly pavilion. It even modified Friery, who grew up fearing butterflies and different bugs: “Ten minutes within the pavilion, and I believed, oh, there’s nothing to be terrified of in any respect.”
Butterflies Alive! is open on the Santa Barbara Pure Historical past Museum till September 4. See sbnature.org.
