WATCHING new births every single day, see courting dances and vibrant colours are part of a standard visit to a Costa del Sol theme park that has just been chosen for a Remarkable Venue Award.
A girl holding a Morpho Peleides butterfly at the Mariposario (both photos: Mariposariodebenalmadena.com)
The Mariposario, 'Butterflyarium' or butterfly park in Benalmádena has been named one of Spain's top attractions over 2021 via public vote on the holiday and excursion booking site, Tiquet.
Benalmádena is already home to the largest concentration of leisure and tourism attractions on the Málaga-province coast, according to mayor Víctor Navas, and one of these having been picked out for a Remarkable Venue Award has 'made the town very proud', he says.
Technical director and on-site vet Asunción Gómez says this pride is even greater when considering that it was the visitors there themselves who nominated the Mariposario, before an international panel of judges specialising in tourism validated their opinion.
The final for the Remarkable Venue Awards is later this month in the USA, and a small handful who make the cut will be considered, officially, the top visitor sites on planet earth.
For nature-lovers, Benalmádena's Mariposario is a privilege and a delight – here, they can see over 150 different species of butterflies from all over the world, particularly from the tropics.
Typically, the butterfly park has at least 1,500 of these colourful creatures in residence, of varying sizes – some very tiny, but others with a wing-span of several inches.
Sadly, butterflies only have a life expectancy of about two to three weeks, but during that time they breed actively, meaning visitors will almost certainly see new ones born, chrysalises forming, resting and opening as caterpillars go through their transformation, eggs, and the courting dance as butterflies pair up to reproduce.
As a result of their short lives, the population of the Mariposario is constantly being renewed.
Visitors see different ones each time they drop in.
Butterflies at the park live in natural surroundings, designed to match their default habitats, and fly around loose, so close-up pictures of the creatures, even on your hands, and photos of colourful clusters in flight are very likely.
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