Zoo Tour: Butterflies at the Indianapolis Zoo

This year is the Year of Zoo. I was reminded, back in the summer, of how much fun it is to visit new zoos, and since Will, in particular, deeply loves animals of all sorts, AND since there are some really great zoos that we've never visited just a few hours' drive from our house, I decided that this is the year to see them all.

A couple of weeks ago, we squeezed in one last visit to the Indianapolis Zoo just before our membership ran out. Of course, we saw ALL our favorite, good animals--

--but we were really there to immerse ourselves in the zoo's seasonal butterfly exhibit. We've been studying butterflies, doncha know, and also?

They're just awesome:

Mating butterflies!

We've got some great butterfly identification guides, so my plan is to make copies of these photos and then have the girls identify them. Will also really, really wants to create an old-school butterfly collection, the kind with the straight pins and cotton batting and dead butterflies, and though I, myself, am profoundly horrified by this plan, I understand that it is a legitimate scientific activity, and so I'm committed to helping her at least research it, with the understanding that we will only undertake it if I'm assured that there's a humane method of euthanizing the butterflies (shudder).