Butterfly Creek

Calling all animal lovers: Do you love animals? Dream of being a zookeeper? Become a Junior Keeper for the day! ☀

We have two Junior Keeper Programmes

🐸Junior Keeper Rookie🐸
Designed for children aged 7-11 years old. An introductory programme where kids learn the basics of animal care including feeding, cleaning and playing with the animals.

🐷Junior Keeper Explorer🐷
Designed for children aged 11-14 years old. It is a more in-depth look into animal care designed for older kids where they will learn about conservation, behavior and health.

Bookings are now open for July. Be sure to get in quick as spots are filling up fast!

Book online at https://www.butterflycreek.co.nz/holiday-programmes

On Tuesday 5th May, Friends of Matakohe-Limestone Island, local iwi, Ngāti Manuhiri, mana whenua Te Parawhau, Butterfly Creek staff, school students and volunteers gathered to release 450 giant wētāpunga onto Whangārei Harbour’s predator-free Matakohe-Limestone Island.

For the past year, Butterfly Creek (in collaboration with Auckland Zoo) have been breeding these wētāpunga on site in our specialised wētāpunga unit. Early Tuesday morning, adult and juvenile wētāpunga were packaged into bamboo tubes and chilly bins as they travelled from Butterfly Creek (Auckland) to Matakohe-Limestone Island for the release.

Following a formal ceremony on the island where members of Auckland iwi Ngāti Manuhiri handed over wētāpunga to mana whenua Te Parawhau, attendees helped find new homes for the wētāpunga (adult and juvenile species) to be released in the trees.

For 15 years, Butterfly Creek has been running a wētāpunga breeding programme with the goal to increase wētāpunga populations in Aotearoa alongside Auckland Zoo. We have since released hundreds of wētāpunga onto predator-free island sanctuaries like Matakohe-Limestone Island and we aim to release more in future years.

You can read the full article here: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/on-the-up-giant-weta-arrive-on-whangarei-island-in-major-conservation-milestone/N6MQT4IMZBFSDG255PZZX3P4VU/

Photo credit: Wendy Bown

See a tarantula up close in our tarantula encounter 🕷

📍Butterfly House
⏰Daily at 2pm