The Birds and the Bees of Butterfly Conservatories
HARDEEVILLE: Director tours Asian insect zoos to learn what his should look like once it leaves its construction cocoon.
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A giant metal beetle hangs on the walls of Japan's Kashihara City Insectarium.
An 8-foot-long motorized honeybee spins in endless circles in the Itami City Insectarium, just up the coastline from Kashihara.
Asian forest scorpions scurry over the arms and chest of an employee of the Sentosa Butterfly Park and Insect Kingdom Museum on an island outside Singapore, and every so often the man sucks venom from their stingers.
In November, Ed Spevak - conservatory director of the planned Butterfly Kingdom near Hardeeville - toured a handful of Asian butterfly and insect exhibits, picking up good ideas for use in his conservatory and discarding others.
The 8-foot honeybee, for instance, might be a good one, Spevak said, particularly if video cameras are added to show how bees see - which, incidentally, isn't how you probably suspect.
"It's pixels," Spevak said. "That's a better analogy of how they actually see than in movies like 'The Fly.' "
Bad ideas were plenty, as well. In Tokyo's Tama Zoo, rusty metal bars hold up papers explaining what's in certain displays. The Kashihara display is a gargantuan steel monstrosity designed to withstand earthquakes; its weight, Spevak said, would cause it to sink into Jasper County's marshy ground if it were built here.
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Developer John Rosenberg plans to build a $23 million butterfly conservatory and insect
zoo near Interstate 95's exit 8 in Hardeeville; Spevak said it could be open by early summer, 2002.
Rosenberg has most of the land he needs and knows generally what he wants his building to look like.
It will be two-stories tall, complete with a waterfall and everything from rain forests to deserts inside a 13,000-square-foot, 75-foot-tall glass dome shaped like a butterfly. Other passages will lead to an insect zoo, classrooms and research areas.
"What we're trying to make is one of the most unique facilities in the country," Spevak said. "I like to think of us as really the first all-around, stand-alone insect facility."
What Rosenberg and Spevak don't know is how the insects will be displayed inside. That's the main reason Spevak went to Asia last month.
On his whirlwind tour, Spevak visited zoos, insectariums and actual beetle stores in Kashihara, Itami and Tokyo in Japan; on Sentosa Island; in Singapore; and in Penang and Kuala Lumpur, Malasia.
(While in the latter country, he also attended a symposium of butterfly experts from throughout the world - that was the second reason for his trip.)
Here are examples of what Spevak liked about the places he visited:
- Displays showing how certain butterflies mimic others, adopting the same color patterns and behaviors in an effort to better their chances of survival. Spevak envisions a display resembling something from "Sesame Street."
"One of these things is not like the other," Spevak said, singing one of the TV show's most popular ditties.
- A touch-screen display showing the physics of how a butterfly or a dragonfly flies.
- Big "water features," complete with aquatic insects and periscopes or underwater cameras to see what goes on beneath the surface.
- Butterfly and insect designs in the ironwork throughout the building and outdoor gardens. Also, Spevak envisions stonework in the gardens or entryway designed as local artists would have it.
- Speakers and cameras allowing visitors to see and hear what researchers are doing "behind the scenes" in the center's laboratories.
- Lots of signs. U.S. zoos often don't have enough signs that explain exactly what it is visitors are seeing, Spevak said.
"It's an experience, but not necessarily an educational experience," he said. He wants the Butterfly Kingdom to be both fun and educational.
- He wants to use a plastic material for the conservatory's roof, even though it's never been tried in America. The material lets all manner of light through, which would mean he could raise varieties of flowers inside that Japanese displays fail to provide.
- Like in various Asian displays, Spevak plans to introduce a variety of flying birds, but he said he'll probably stay away from the Asian habit of keeping mammals like mouse deer around.
- Like the Tama Zoo, he plans to place various sayings by various philosophers throughout the conservatory, hoping passersby absorb some of their love for nature.
- Displays of how insects relate to humans through everything from diet to movies like "Mothra," one of Spevak's personal favorites.
- In Sentosa, one of the most attractive displays is a nocturnal view of the world of fireflies. Spevak plans one here.
Butterfly Kingdom: Park Will Be Second-Largest Conservatory In World