Float Like A Butterfly At The San Diego Zoo Safari Park Butterfly Jungle

From March 16th until April 7th, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park invites guests to immerse themselves in the sensational world of fluttering butterflies at the Butterfly Jungle. This annual favorite has captivated San Diego Zoo Safari Park guests over the years and is truly a sight to behold. Just imagine walking amongst thousands of colorful butterflies, as they soar above your head, flutter past your ear and perhaps even gently land upon your shoulder.

The Butterfly Jungle is located in the Hidden Jungle; a climate-controlled indoor environment located in Nairobi Village. When you arrive to the San Diego Zoo Safari park all you need to do is follow the trail of butterflies to find your way to the Butterfly Jungle:

This year, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park have brought in over 30 species of butterflies from Africa, Asia, Central America and South America including the zebra longwing, orange-barred tiger, Grecian shoemaker, Gult Fritillary, orange julia, tiger longwing, tailed jay, giant owl, pink rose swallowtail, banded purple wing, postman, paper kite, monarch, blue morpho and belus swallowtail. As you enter the Butterfly Jungle exhibit, a handy colorful guide is given to each guest that helps identify each beauty.

To ensure the highest quality close encounter with the butterflies, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park continues to add new butterflies throughout the duration of the Butterfly Jungle exhibit. Also, to ensure the happiness of each of the butterflies, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park staff have meticulously transformed the Hidden Jungle exhibit into a butterfly heaven. Complete with cascading colorful nectar plants and properly placed feeding stations, it is no wonder the butterfly inhabitants flutter about so merrily.

Part of the excitement of entering the Butterfly Jungle is the eager anticipation of waiting for a delicate butterfly to land upon you. Just yesterday this expert tweet was sent out from the San Diego Zoo Safari Park:

Butterflies can see red, green & yellow. They see color in the ultraviolet range, which reveals patters on flowers that we can’t see.

This tip explains why we saw some very interesting outfits yesterday while at the Butterfly Jungle. And here I thought those people were just being festive.

Tickets to see the Butterfly Jungle are free with admission to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, however you must have a time reservation. The Butterfly Jungle is one of the most popular annual exhibits and tickets are often “sold out” on the weekends and the lines can be very long. Tickets to the Butterfly Jungle are given in 15 minute time increments.
Once it is your turn to visit the Butterfly Jungle, be prepared for lots of people. Also, it is humid and warm inside the exhibit, which is perfect for butterflies but not for camera lenses so make sure you bring a lens cloth.

Tips for the best Butterfly Jungle experience possible: 
Arrive Early.
Wear bright colors but especially Red, Green or Yellow.
Be patient and stand still.

Other tips to remember:
The Butterfly Jungle seems to become more popular later in the day, I suggest you make your timed reservation in the early morning
Keep an eye on your little ones – I swear mine didn’t do anything they weren’t supposed to because I was busy taking pictures. Ack.
Watch where you step – many butterflies land on the ground and look like a leaf
Don’t touch the butterflies! They are fragile.

In celebration of the popular annual Butterfly Jungle event, surrounding restaurants near the exhibit will be serving butterfly themed cupcakes and fudge. Also there is an adorable yet hilarious live entertainment show by the “Flutterby Players”. This hilarious show is put on by some  highly animated guys that will leave you in stitches.

The San Diego Zoo Safari Park have created fun contests to enter for a chance to win safari adventures. Such as the Instagram contest, where participants are asked to tag their photos with #ButterflyJungle, the Pinterest contest where participants are asked to create a Butterfly Jungle board and pin like crazy for a chance to “win big”, the kids coloring contest as well as ongoing contests on the San Diego Zoo Safari park facebook page.

For more information about the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and the annual Butterfly Jungle exhibit log on to San Diego Zoo Safari Park now.

My kids and I attended the Butterfly Jungle as a media guest of the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. All floatlikeabutterflystinglikeabee opinions are my own.