The Butterfly Pavilion is currently preparing for a new resident that senior director of animal collections Sara Stevens describes as “basically like giant eight-armed toddlers, with all of the joy and all of the chaos a toddler brings.”
That resident — a giant Pacific octopus — will be the centerpiece of a $250,000 expansion of Water’s Edge, the Westminster invertebrate zoo’s aquatic exhibit, when it reopens Sept. 14 after about a month of construction.
Water’s Edge will grow to 1,100 square feet, adding about 325 square feet, triple the pavilion’s saltwater capacity to more than 3,000 gallons, and feature 12 habitats, including eight new exhibits. Stevens notes that “100 to 150 new animals” are expected to join the collection, representing roughly five to 10 species the pavilion has never housed before…