The Prairie Butterfly house is a new exhibit coming to the Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park and Zoo. After over a year of work, the structure is nearing completion and is set to open later this summer.

The 150 foot building will become the home to eight different breeds of North American butterflies. The Forestry Farm imports them from butterfly farmers down in the United States (mainly from Florida and Alabama) whose jobs are to cultivate and farm the butterfly’s. Once in the pupa stage (the third stage of four in a insects life cycle) they can get shipped to Saskatoon within a day. When arrived, the pupa is put right on display and anywhere from 24 hours to five days they will start to transform into butterflies.

The butterfly house will look similar to a green house but with mesh instead of glass. Once inside you’ll’ find bench’s where you can sit, water features, plants and feeding stations for the butterflies. You can also learn about the butterflies and will have an opportunity to see the pupa hatch.

The Zoo is open daily from 9:00am – 7:00pm.