Butterfly farm

I went to the butterfly farm and spent about 2 hours there to take the pictures.

Butterflies are beautiful creatures of the wild. The visitor to the Penang Butterfly Farm, finding himself surrounded by a myriad of fluttering butterflies within a seemingly natural setting, is likely to think himself in a sort of enchanted wilderness, bejeweled with the colorful gems of creation.
The main attraction of the Butterfly Farm is undoubtedly the free flying papilions in the enormous enclosure. The visitor can inspect the butterflies at close quarters as they flit around their favorite nectar plants. The exhibition of selected insects and reptiles are also crowd drawers. The visitor, having traversed this complex of displays ends up in a souvenir shop selling butterfly-related paraphernalia.



Today, the Penang Butterfly Farm is the first tropical butterfly farm ever set up in the tropical world, with an average flying population of 4000 Malaysian butterflies of 120 different species, including the rare Indian Leafl (Kallima paralekta) and the endangered Yellow Bird wing (Troides helena). Probably the most famous of Malaysian butterflies is the Rajah Brooke's Bird wing of the Papilionidae family. First discovered in Borneo in 1855 by A. R. Wallace, it was named after the first British Rajah of Sarawak.

Malay Peninsular has over 1000 recorded butterfly species, among the highest of any country in the world in relation to her small land mass.

The Penang Butterfly Farm is now a household name in Penang and a "must-see" for visitors since it opened in 1986. The farm located right at the end of the tourist hotel strip at Batu Ferringhi stands on a 0.8 hector site in Teluk Bahang, about 17km from George town. It has become one of the most popular stops on Penang's round island tour. The success of the Butterfly Farm as a tourist attraction has even inspired a series of similar commercial operations in Malacca, Cameron highlands and Singapore.

In spite of its general fame, the aspect of the Penang Butterfly Farm which means most to the people behind it has gained scant recognition within Malaysia.