Rescued zoo butterflies are brought to the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House

 (Here is the full piece I did for West Newsmagazine following the May 16 tornado that mainly moved through the western section of the city of St. Louis. Used several of my own photos from more than a dozen Butterfly House visits in Faust Park.)

How ironic that there’s a lyric that reads, ‘You’re a butterfly, and butterflies are free to fly; Fly away, high away, bye-bye’ in Elton John’s 1975 hit song, “Someone Saved My Life Tonight.”

Hundreds of butterflies were saved after a tornado measuring about E3 caused heavy mid-afternoon damage on May 16 at the St. Louis Zoo.

Heavy winds sent large trees crashing through several plexiglass panels of the geodesic dome of the Mary Ann Lee Butterfly Wing.

Zoo employees were racing around to save several dozen butterflies from escaping through the openings. So was entomologist Tad Yankoski of the Sophia M. Sachs Butterly House in Chesterfield’s Faust Park.

Chris Hartley, current Manager of Collections, Education and Facilities of Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House, has been an employee there since August 2005. He noted that his facility works closely with the Intake Care team at the St. Louis Zoo. They were personally in contact with the zoo due to having a lot of friends there.

“So, we knew right away when the storms damaged the insectarium. Tad actually responded from his house and let us know at work that this happened and was on his way. He took the initiative and just dove right in because if you’re in this business, you knew this was a top level, emergency situation. I’m sure you read how they were running around with nets trying to catch all the butterflies. He brought a net, jumped right in, and helped their staff gather them up and he took them to safety at our facility. The butterflies were actually released that same night that they were caught because the best habitat for the butterfly is the natural one where they can find food and everything they need.”

Hartley said that regarding transport, it was very normal. He noted that butterflies are very easy to transport compared to so many other species at the zoo like giraffes or polar bears. They simply go into mesh cages in the back seat of a car where they can be contained instead of just flapping around your car. They make sure it’s a safe way to transport them because their wings can be so delicate. He said that “if they were not confined a little bit, they could beat themselves up before they even arrived at the Butterfly House.”

 The Chesterfield facility took in between 500 and 600 butterflies in the rescue. Among them were The Clipper and The Paper Kite from Southeast Asia, plus four types from Central America: The Postman, The Malachite, The Golden Longwing, and The Blue Morpho.

Among those, dozens were still in the chrysalid stage. He added that those chrysalids went right into their emergence case. Since then, they have emerged into butterflies and have been released into their new conservatory just like they’ve always been there. 

Hartley also noted that butterflies are not aggressive toward each other and there’s never a situation where they can’t be mixed. The lifespan of an adult butterfly is pretty short with the average of about four weeks. So, the butterflies will live out their whole life in Chesterfield before they pass away from old age or natural causes. 

“We are just so grateful that we had the ability to help. There are lots of cities where there’s no other facility to care for them just 20 minutes or so down the road. In fact, that’s far and away the more normal situation. We were just very lucky that even though this tragedy struck the zoo, we were in a position to swing in and help. They helped us out last year and we returned the favor.”

Hartley was referring to a November 2024 situation in which a major flood rocked his own structure.

“This was kind of a reverse situation. They were able to help us out when we had water collecting in our basement because our sump pumps failed, causing the water to accumulate. During that time, we were unable to heat our conservatory, and it was cold. So, they helped us by taking a few of our shipments. That way, our butterflies were able to be released at the zoo so they could survive there.”

What a great example of playing it forward, reciprocating, and returning the favor! And a lot more butterflies were again saved in the process!