The thumbnails below are linked to larger pictures
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The
Butterfly Farm at Stratford-upon-Avon is the creation in miniature of a
tropical rainforest with a lush landscape of exotic foliage and tropical
blossoms. It is an ideal excursion, especially for a rainy or cold day when the
26°c atmosphere is particularly inviting.
It is Europe's largest Butterfly farm normally hosting about 1600 butterflies of over 80 different species. These fly freely amongst the lush foliage fluttering over the Koi carp pond and waterfall, attracted to the many nectar feeding tables, where they can be viewed at close quarters by visitors.
The source of many of these colourful
insects is the Caterpillar room, where they turn into pupa and are hung by the
hundreds in "emergence cases" and after a few weeks hatch out into beautiful
butterflies that continually repopulate the rainforest. The life of the
butterfly is only measured in weeks and the numbers have to be supplemented by
thousands of pupae imported from breeding partners in the tropics. Some of
these are in turn distributed to other licensed institutions around the
world.In addition to the butterflies there is Insect City where you can view giant beetles, a colony of leaf cutting ants and stick insects amongst others. For the bolder visitor there is also Arachnoland which includes the worlds largest bird eating spider, measuring up to 25 cm across, and scorpion colonies.
Also roaming freely in the forest setting are birds and reptiles including a giant Iguana that we spotted climbing amongst the roof supports, perhaps he had escaped !!
| *Link to official site for viewing Visitor Information* |
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