By Ana Gomez

CALI, Colombia – In its rivalry with Peru to have the largest number of registered butterfly species, Colombia has taken a giant step in exhibiting these creatures: interactive butterfly habitats that recreate natural ecosystems.

The project helps show the country’s biodiversity, one of the world’s richest with close to 3,500 kinds of lepidoptera compared with between an estimated 3,500 to 4,000 in neighboring Peru.

The keeper of the butterfly habitat at the Cali Zoo, Alejandro Perdomo, told Efe during a visit here that official figures of catalogued species in both countries vary “almost from one day to the next.”

“Butterflies still haven’t been registered in many places where new species might appear and which would widen our knowledge of these insects,” he said, explaining how costly it is for investigators to get to many of Colombia’s natural environments.

Cali’s interactive butterfly habitat, a winding garden, appears to be outdoors but is really covered with an almost invisible screen that keeps the little winged creatures from escaping.

“This exhibition has been designed for people to learn, understand and get a feeling for the role these insects play in a natural environment and the importance of preserving them,” Perdomo said.

Hummingbirds, seedeaters, dragonflies, colorful vegetation, a waterfall and a stream full of carp recreate, in 450 square meters (4,840 square feet), the natural ecosystem of a score of butterfly species that interact with visitors and compose a mosaic of colors when they alight on flowers to feed.

The choice of butterflies is guided by the longevity of the species in this artificial environment, which can sometimes be as long as nine months.

Other factors are their active and passive behavior in filling the air with their fluttering and adorning the tropical plants, as well as the color and brilliance of their wings.

All the species exhibited – including the zebra longwing butterfly, the owl butterfly and the monarch butterfly – are raised and watched by the keepers who collect eggs of the most typical butterflies along the Cali River, which flows through this southwestern Colombian city.

Keepers watch over the birth of new specimens from the eggs to the appearance of caterpillars, which later become the chrysalises from which beautiful butterflies emerge.

Every day the keepers free the butterflies born that morning.

Cali’s butterfly habitat opened to the public in 2003 for educational and research purposes, goals similar to those at the zoos in Medellin and Calarca.

These are the most beautiful and attractive to visit, because there are other butterfly zoos in Colombia used for exporting chrysalises to European institutions during the summer months as well as selling them locally.

In Colombia, where Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez made butterflies legendary in his novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” it is traditional to free these insects during big celebrations like weddings and birthdays. EFE