(New Bedford) Monarch butterfly caterpillars are now on exhibit in the Wildlife Education Center at Buttonwood Park Zoo. Caterpillars were hatched from eggs laid by wild monarchs in the zoo’s Garden for the Butterflies. In the Wildlife Education Center, visitors can get an up-close look through a zoomed video camera as the hungry caterpillars devour milkweed plants before entering a chrysalis and emerging as an adult monarch. Butterflies will be released in the Garden for Butterflies after completing metamorphosis.
Monarch butterflies are native to North, Central, and South America. In spring and summer they visit open fields containing milkweed plants and gardens planted with butterfly-friendly flowers. Milkweed is important to the survival of monarch butterflies, as a monarch caterpillar will eat nothing else. Adult monarchs lay their eggs on the undersides of milkweed plant leaves and when the caterpillar hatches a few days later it eats its own eggshell before devouring the plant it hatched on. The caterpillar will continue to eat for two weeks, growing to a length of two inches before attaching itself to a sturdy leaf, stick, or branch with hooks in its last pair of legs. Here it sheds its outer layer of skin to form a chrysalis. For two weeks the caterpillar remains inside the chrysalis before emerging as a fully developed adult monarch butterfly.
Buttonwood Park Zoo features over 250 animals and 30 exhibits, including elephants, bison, mountain lions, bears, eagles, seals, otters, farm animals and much more. Called “one of the finest small zoos in the United States” by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, the Zoo also offers train rides and pony rides. Conveniently located at the intersection of I-195 and Rt. 140 in historic New Bedford, Massachusetts. Open seven days a week, 10 am to 5 pm. Learn more at www.bpzoo.org or call (508) 991-6178.