When the Noorder Dierenpark had plans for a tropical butterfly garden, they ended up with biologist Wybren Landman. He graduated on grasshoppers, but Vlinders soon grabbed his interest. In his house in Drachten, a bedroom turned into a tropical climate with extra heating, nozzles and exotic plants. “One of my sons moved in the room with the other, so that the butterflies had a place. Well, it all started in the attic.”
Every week he drove a crate full of butterflies from Drachten to Emmen. “With mesh on the outside, so that they couldn’t go anywhere. No one who looked weird,” laughs Landman.
The butterfly garden became a hit. Within a year there were 200 thousand extra visitors. “People thought it was magical. You walked between the butterflies and plants, you didn’t have that anywhere else.”
But it wasn’t a simple job. Tropical butterflies are picky, they only lay their eggs on certain, preferably un sprayed, plants. “Try to find a un sprayed citrus plant in the Netherlands.”
The butterfly garden asked for its own breeding, careful climate control and endless patience. That was accompanied by a large low point.
“A strict freezing night broke a heat exchanger. The radiators ran empty and the temperature plummeted. That cost many butterflies life. We stood there until the ankles in the water and it was just colder and colder, that was a disaster.”
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