The Truth About Animal Care

Earlier this year, we posted a story about our high hopes for the observation beehive. Although the beehive performed brilliantly all summer and well into fall, the population became too low to expect it to carry over into spring. As the Animal Care Department sat down to discuss this, and to think about how to present the saga, a larger story emerged.



BEES

An observation beehive is a very long way from the original life of a honeybee, native to southern Europe and North Africa. Bees evolved in warm, dry climates with lots of sunshine. Beekeepers have explored and mastered techniques for maintaining bees in situations vastly different from their natural habitat. But they have also inadvertently exposed them to chemicals and pathogens that did not exist in their place of origin. The price of transporting animals out of their natural habitat is the constant struggle to create a viable alternative.

But what about our other exhibit animals? How does captivity increase or diminish their chances of long, comfortable lives?

BUTTERFLIES

The residents of our Tropical Butterfly House come to us as pupae, so they have already lived longer than most butterflies would in the wild. In nature, butterflies produce far more eggs than will live to maturity. Predators, hunger, and disease can reduce the caterpillar population from dozens to just a few pupae. Therefore, few adults live long enough to reproduce. Butterfly farming tilts the odds in favor of the young surviving to adulthood.

Once our butterflies mature and fly around, they face fewer predators or weather hazards than they would in the wild. Sure, there are dangers but our Tropical Butterfly House is pretty safe. Our horticulture team provides ample nectar sources, and there’s fruit for those who prefer it. We choose species that don’t migrate, so their instincts to fly away are not thwarted. Our butterflies do not get to reproduce, but instead they serve as ambassadors for butterflies in the wild. They build good will and interest in preserving wild places for generations of insects to come.

NAKED MOLE RATS

So what about our naked mole rats? Our colony surely has less space than it might in the wild. This is where our Animal Care staff’s commitment to enrichment is critical. Naked mole rats are the most active, dynamic animals we exhibit. Their need to be busy leads to stress related health problems if we don’t challenge them. By constantly changing their surroundings and introducing food in novel ways, we keep them learning and moving. And we entertain our guests and ourselves.

The mole rats show no sign of being bothered by the sounds outside their chambers. They generate a fair amount of their own noise through chewing, and seem oblivious to other sounds. The daily maintenance from Animal Care staff is probably a mild stressor, but remember, not all stress is bad. It keeps animals engaged and busy.

No one knows how long naked mole rats live in the wild, but most sources agree that they live much longer in captivity and if their social needs are met, their quality of life is excellent.

SNAKES

Our boa constrictors are harder to keep active. As they reach their middle years, many snakes naturally become more sedentary, and ours are surely no exception. When you watch a snake presentation at our Live Science Stage, you are participating in an important part of the snake’s wellbeing and care: Exercise. Being handled is one of the best exercises these animals can get.

AXOLOTLS

The axolotls are a sad example of animals whose best chance of survival is in captivity. Introduced species, habitat loss, and human hunting critically endanger their natural relatives.

Axolotls have very specific water quality needs, but once those are met, they need (and want) less enrichment than many animals. Their natural place in the ecosystem is at the top of their food chain, with abundant resources and little novelty. Axolotls show stress very readily, so as long as they are healthy we have a good indication that their quality of life is good.

TIDE POOL ANIMALS

The tide pool animals live in a much-compressed version of their natural habitat. Our deep and shallow ends do not replicate the diverse ecosystems of Puget Sound. And we don’t have waves! Life in the open water is both more dangerous and more varied than what we can provide. At low tide, shore life is exposed to predation from gulls, crows, eagles, and shore birds pecking and grabbing them. Surely, they can withstand careful fingers!

What our tide pool animals really need is lots of love in the form of caring for their habitat. If our tide pool animals help create the bond that encourages that care, we think that’s a good use of their time.

This article is a long way of explaining that the animals in our care at Pacific Science Center teach us all about the bigger world and hopefully how to maintain it.
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Breeding Butterflies

Recently, Life Sciences manager Sarah Moore attended the International Conference of Butterfly Exhibitors and Suppliers. This conference is held in a different location each year. In the past it has been held in Costa Rica, Switzerland, Malaysia and Ecuador. The locations may sound exotic, but to the people hosting them, they are home. The 2011 conference was held at Niagara Falls. Here is Sarah’s report.

Most of the time, when I tell people I work with butterflies, they are curious or a bit perplexed; but not the attendees of the International Conference of Butterfly Exhibitors and Suppliers. So it was a treat to spend a week with people who shared the job, duties, concerns, and joys of working with these delicate organisms.

During my visit, I was able to view a facility that raises many of their own butterflies through their entire life cycle. Since I am frequently asked why Pacific Science Center does not breed butterflies on site, I was especially curious to see the process and learn how much additional resources were involved. As it turned out, becoming a butterfly farmer is a serious endeavor.


The Butterfly Conservatory at Niagara Park has a state of the art butterfly breeding area adjacent to it. I spent so much time looking at this facility that I had to hurry through the wonderful butterfly house itself.

Butterflies never meet their offspring, but they put great care into securing appropriate food and habitat for them. A female butterfly will only lay her eggs on the correct plant material, at the correct stage of growth. There were several large, open rooms where host plant material is raised.


These plants are kept in semi-tropical temperatures – a big deal in chilly Niagara. Although to protect the butterflies, pesticides are never used, the plants were nevertheless in great shape and appeared free from any kind of unwanted insect.


Once the plant is large and strong, it is placed in a smaller flight cage where female butterflies are introduced. The butterflies mob the plants, laying eggs for 24 to 48 hours. The plants are then removed to another netted room, where once the eggs hatch out, additional plants are offered to the caterpillars as they grow.

These giant birdwing swallowtail caterpillars are especially hard to raise. They eat plants rich in toxic substances, which they use to make their own bodies distasteful. However, they can become sick from eating too much of the toxin.


In the wild, the caterpillars would chew around the base of the plant, girdling it, to prevent the flow of toxins up the branch. Then they would eat the leaves, and that section of the plant would die. In captivity, the plants are cut, aged in water and then supplied to the larvae. The stems are wrapped with netting to protect them from being chewed through.

But in the end, the birdwing butterflies are worth it. I hope to be able to order some of these spectacular butterflies in time for the holidays!


A good conference always leaves the participant’s head buzzing with possibilities. Could Pacific Science Center breed its own butterflies? Not with our current permits, and probably not with the resources available to us. Could we breed a few specimens to demonstrate the life cycle? This is a more realistic possibility, and one I will be exploring further. Read more!

Butterfly Census

Ever wonder how many butterflies made their home in the Tropical Butterfly House last year? Or how many pupae the Life Sciences Department placed in the emerging window? Can you guess how many different butterfly species we received in 2009?

Every year Life Sciences Manager Sarah Moore is required to provide the USDA with a document summarizing our data on pupae shipments. This information is carefully gathered by the staff each week as pupae are carefully inspected before placing them in the Emerging Window.


The 2009 census highlights are listed below:

Shipments received – 72
Different species received – 132
Pupae received – 24,578
Healthy butterflies released – 20,537
Parasitized pupae – 32
Percentage good emergence – 84%

Sarah credits her staff for the outstanding emergence statistics. “Eighty-four percent of pupae emerged as healthy butterflies, which is impressive considering that some shipments were delayed or arrived with problems. Staff really maximized the chances for every pupa to succeed. Their meticulous record keeping allows me to turn in data that I can be very confident is correct and thorough.”

So - Guess which species of butterfly is the most abundant in the Tropical Butterfly House? Frequent guests will easily recognize our beloved mascot, the Blue Morpho (Morpho peleides). We received 2,095 in 2009!

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Butterfly Detective

There are many tasks that the Life Sciences department does for the Tropical Butterfly House behind public view. As mentioned in a previous post about pupae pinning, every week we document the numbers of butterflies that are shipped. These are noted in our weekly “Fresh Sheets.” However, one of the more daunting tasks is to identify and record all of those butterflies that don’t successfully emerge to live out their lives in our garden.




As the emerging process is perhaps the most difficult part of a butterfly’s life cycle, not every pupa turns into a healthy and capable butterfly. Some pupae never emerge. Others emerge the wrong way, damaging their wings so they’re unable to fly. Also, we monitor any pupa that have been affected by fungus or parasitoids. It’s important that we record individuals that don’t emerge properly so that we are reimbursed by our suppliers. This information helps them to improve the way butterflies are farmed.


The identification of dead butterflies can be a difficult and tedious job. Our department carries several butterfly encyclopedias and vendor guides to help us with the process. By using visual identification and a process of elimination we are able to identify the specie's country of origin for each individual butterfly. We currently have five active suppliers from which we receive hundreds of pupae every week. In 2009 alone, we received 132 different species of butterflies. You can imagine that for someone with little practice at identification, identifying partially emerged butterflies can be a very long process.


So what do we look for when we identify dead butterflies? The color patterns and designs on the wings are the first identifying marker. You can look at a butterfly’s open wing colors or their closed wing colors. The shape of the butterfly also helps in identifying species. Swallowtails have a tail-like design similar to a fork tail on swallows. Another example is the Longwing butterflies, which have a much longer forewing than hind wing. Measuring wingspan length and body size can also mark a species.


But there are still some obvious challenges. Many butterflies have multiple similarities in design and color. If the wings are in poor condition, this can often make the identification process difficult. When the wings are too damaged we search the thorax and abdomen for identifying markers. Some of the more difficult characteristics can really throw you for a loop. Some species are dimorphic, which means male and female look different. There are many types of butterflies that can also display mimicry, which is defined by a similarity in appearance between two species that protects one or both of those species. Markings can also be regional for a species. It is common for the same species of butterfly to have a series of different designs depending on the different geographic regions of origin.


From an outsider’s viewpoint, it may not seem like a critical task but in actuality it is crucial to the operation of our butterfly exhibit. This data determines which species have the best emergence rates. That information can influence which species and from which vendors we will purchase from in the future. Most importantly, this data collection allows us to become transparent as a department in Pacific Science Center, as well as an organization answerable to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). And as our skill in tracking problems with pupae improves, we learn best practices to reduce these very loses. In other words, by knowing what has gone wrong, we are better able to keep butterflies healthy and keep the exhibit looking good.


Therefore, accuracy of this task is important to the future success of the butterfly house. Personally I’ve had moderate success at identifying dead butterflies, but I have noticed that some people have a natural knack for the process. Even though it’s difficult for me, I try to work through this task every week so that eventually I can learn to identify most species with relative ease. So go ahead. Quiz me.

-Adrian Eng, Animal Caretaker & Butterfly Detective

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Costa Rica Entomological Supply

Ever wonder who are the people responsible for producing some of the pupae you see in the Tropical Butterfly House emerging window?

Here is a photo of the staff at Costa Rica Entomological Supply which they sent to us recently.

We always enjoy the connection with people throughout the world who share our interest in butterflies and their habitats. For more information about CRES, their history, their seminars and educational resources go to: http://www.butterflyfarm.co.cr/costa-rica-entomological-supply/index.html

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Behind the emerging window

Visitors to the Tropical Butterfly House often ask how the butterflies get out of the emerging window and into the exhibit. But have you ever wondered how the pupae get pinned up on the boards in the first place? It’s actually more complicated than it appears.



Once or twice a week, Pacific Science Center receives a box of carefully packaged pupae. These shipments come from Costa Rico, El Salvador, Suriname, The Philippines, or our broker in Los Angeles. All of our shipments are noted on our weekly “Fresh Sheet.” As soon as the shipment is delivered to the reception desk, Life Sciences staff gets to work. Color-coded labels are selected, a prepared checklist is assembled, pins, boards, handling trays are readied, and the hot glue guns are plugged in!

Wait! Did I say “hot glue guns?” Yep. Unfortunately, not every pupa arrives with a sufficient amount of silk to pin to the foam boards. We have found that in those instances, a little dab of hot glue on the pin will securely attach the abdomen of the pupae without any ill effects to the butterfly.

Inside the shipping box may be several smaller boxes that are all opened within our sleeve cage. This is a precaution in the event that a pupa in the shipment has been infected with a parasitic wasp. The sleeve cage prevents the tiny flying insects from escaping and contaminating the rest of the exhibit.

Each species is unwrapped from its cotton bedding, counted, and carefully inspected before being placed in a damp towel on a tray and given to a staff member for pinning. Pupae that are not viable or have already emerged are noted on the checklist. If a butterfly is in the process of emerging as it is being unpacked, we carefully place it in a “hospital,” a small cage that gives the butterfly netting to hang from while drying its wings. Pupae that are close to emerging are also placed in the hospital.

The entire process of unpacking and pinning a butterfly shipment can take two to three staff members two to three hours. So the next time you visit the Tropical Butterfly House, take a closer look at our pupae in the emerging window. The assemblage is meticulous and consistent. Yet it is also as lovely as the butterflies themselves. It’s just one more component in the process of maintaining a beautiful butterfly display.

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My First Butterfly Release

By Jamie Klein

Before my butterfly release training I had no idea why butterflies needed to be released or how it is done, but after a morning with Lead Animal Caretaker Brianna Todd and a few butterflies I can tell you all about it. At Pacific Science Center’s Tropical Butterfly House, butterfly releases are part of the daily routine that keeps the butterfly population thriving. The pupae are pinned to foam boards in what amounts to a white, padded window box displayed inside the butterfly house –the emerging window.





The first step was looking in the window to check for any parasitoids that may have emerged from an unsuspecting chrysalis. As I learned this morning, caterpillars are sometimes attacked by these tiny parasitic wasps before they pupate. It is difficult to identify a chrysalis that has been parasitized. That is, until the parasitoids suddenly emerge from the chrysalis and fly around the window. On this particular morning the window was free of parasitoids, so Brianna and I proceeded into the small room that accesses the back side of the emerging window.



I opened only one side of the double-doors containing the pinned pupae to avoid a butterfly free-for-all in the release room. I got my first close up look at the incredible variety of chrysalides. To me, some of the chrysalides looked like small brightly colored seashells, while others resembled curled up leaves. After a butterfly (or moth) has emerged from its chrysalis, it literally “hangs out” on the empty shell so its damp wings have time to dry. When their wings have dried and firmed up properly, they are ready to be caught for release.




Catching butterflies is tricky business! It is a Zen art that requires flat tipped forceps and a quick, yet steady approach. I was instructed to grasp the butterfly while its wings were closed, close to its body at the overlap of its hind and fore wings so it could not thrash and damage its delicate wings. Going for the butterflies with closed wings first, I quickly learned that each species reacted differently. Some species were easy targets. Others, like the Clipper (Parthenos sylvia), make it difficult because they do not land with their wings closed. I also found as a general rule, the smaller the wings, the feistier the butterfly!


Possibly even more difficult than catching butterflies with forceps is catching them with a net. A few renegade butterflies escaped the emerging window into the release room and made a fool out of me for a good 15 minutes while I tried unsuccessfully to net them all. Thank goodness for Brianna’s practiced netting skills, she was able to make quick work of them. Once caught, we placed the butterflies into lidded bins to be transported into the main butterfly house. Finally time for the actual release, we opened the bins and one by one picked up the butterflies and set them free.




Jamie Klein is Pacific Science Center’s new Exhibit Operations Coordinator. Recently, Jamie was trained to safely and carefully release butterflies from the emerging window. We thank her for sharing this experience with us!

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Life Cycle of a Butterfly Shipment - an overview

On any given day, Pacific Science Center’s Tropical Butterfly House usually houses between 600 and 800 live butterflies, but the average adult butterfly usually lives for just a couple of weeks! So how do we keep our butterfly populations so plentiful?

Every week, we purchase approximately 500 new pupae from our various butterfly vendors. Each shipment contributes to a diverse and stable population of butterflies that fly freely throughout our exhibit. As a way of understanding the logistics of butterfly population control, Lead Animal Caretaker Brianna Todd, has outlined the typical “life cycle” of a butterfly shipment:
• Days 1 to 3: Boxes of pupae are shipped from butterfly farms around the world. Delivery usually takes a few days, as it must pass through USDA customs inspection. A few butterflies may have already eclosed, (emerged from their chrysalis) by the time we open the package.

• Days 3 to 6: The emerging window is full of new butterflies as pupae complete metamorphosis and adult butterflies emerge.


• Days 6 to 12: Most of the butterflies in the shipment have emerged by now and are happily flying in the butterfly house but the slower-developing species are eclosing at this time.
• Days 12 to 14: The entire shipment has been released and is flying in the butterfly house. The butterflies that emerged shortly after the shipment arrived are beginning to die off.

• Days 14 to 29: Most of the butterflies from the shipment end their life cycle. A few species have exceptionally long lives and may still be spotted.
• Days 30 plus: Most of the butterflies from a shipment have expired with a few exceptions.


Pacific Science Center will be closed to the public September 14 – 25 for maintenance. During that time, Life Sciences staff will thoroughly clean the Tropical Butterfly House. A major component of this year’s “Big Clean” is the complete replacement of the butterfly house netting for the first time in 5 years. This means that we have to take steps to drastically reduce the butterfly population beforehand and then be prepared to replenish our stock in time for the public reopening, September 26.

Follow along over the next few weeks as we track the progress of this year’s Big Clean.

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