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Visitors to Butterfly World, a park in Antalya’s Kepez district, can watch butterflies prepare to take flight, having finished developing in warm, humid conditions after being shipped in as pupae from other countries. A pupa is the stage in which a caterpillar transforms into an adult.
Veterinarians place the pupae, which arrive from different continents in special boxes, in the hanging position they take in nature, and monitor temperature and humidity constantly.
Veterinarian Ozge Yildiz said the hatching areas are kept at above 80% humidity and an average of 28 degrees Celsius, and that staff stay with the butterflies from emergence until they are ready to fly.
Yildiz said newly emerged butterflies cannot fly immediately. They first hang themselves in place while hemolymph, the insect equivalent of blood, begins circulating and their wings and muscles develop. Once ready, the butterflies are released into the park’s tropical garden. Emergence takes two to 10 days, depending on the species.
Park manager Ismail Arik said the park holds about 20,000 butterflies of 25 species, a number that can rise to 40 species with new shipments, since the species on display change by season. Pupae arrive every week from more than 20 countries in the Atlantic and Pacific regions, he said.
Visitors can follow the pupa and flight-preparation stages through information panels and audio guide stories, which Arik described as a very different experience. The glasswing butterfly and the blue morpho are among the species that draw the most attention.
Arik said the park also aims to give children and young people a love of nature and raise awareness of ecological balance, including water use and carbon footprint. “We are not just a butterfly park,” he said.
One of the questions visitors ask most often concerns lifespan, Arik said. Many believe butterflies live for only one day, but the average is 20 to 30 days, and the longest-living species can survive about eight months.
Butterflies feed on flower nectar and fermented fruit, and because they lack chewing mouthparts and teeth, they cannot eat hard, fresh fruit.
Teachers and retired teachers can visit the park for free throughout November to mark Teachers’ Day on Nov. 24, Arik added.
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