Victoria Butterfly Gardens

There is a place in Victoria that fascinates me to the point of utter delight:  Victoria Butterfly Gardens

It is a place the creates the epitome of relaxation and delight for visitors as it releases 600 to 1200 butterflies a week into a man-made garden space the size of three basketball courts.  In a humid, tropical environment created with natural plants, ponds and a tiny stream, a world of up to 70 species of butterflies float through the jungle foliage around you.  Some even land on your hair, shoulder or hand as you admire or photograph them.  Their life cycles are carefully demonstrated from the chrysalis form of the butterfly inside a hard case, until it changes into an adult emerging to take flight with fluttering wings.

If this were not entertaining enough, there is more.   Two pink flamingos watch orange koi float by as they feed in a stream.  A blue and gold macaw named Shadow says "Hi!" as you pass beneath his perch, while red-footed tortoises ease away from your feet at the edge of their domain.  Carefully confined within boxes that provide a perfect environment, shy but gorgeous poison frogs of multiple colors watch your every inquisitive movement.  Pond turtles adorn a log in the middle of the stream, each vying for a perceived perfect portion of its wood.  Ms. Jigs, a large green iguana, spies on you from above the path through her part of this jungle.

At the entry to this world of wonder, there is an insectarium where you can watch leaf cutter ants create their own world of continuous labor.  Feeding upon leaves, they only attack a particular leaf for one day.  Then, genetically programmed to preserve their food source, they move on to the next leaf.  Carrying back each piece cut from a leaf to their "nest" (pieces sometimes larger than themselves), these tireless workers provide food to those maintaining the nest.  They even have a disposal site for their waste.  If an ant falls into that site, it never returns to the nest, banned for the good of the colony.  Further critters occupy this area:  metallic green Derby's Flower Beetles, Giant Forest Scorpions, and a Malaysian Dead Leaf Mantis, to name just a few.

I love this place.  Twice there, and twice charmed.