Many Gainesville residents prepare for Hurricane Idalia by stocking up with water, food and gasoline, but staff at the Florida Museum of Natural History are doing something different to prepare for the storm: catching butterflies.
The butterfly habitat at the museum houses about 700 butterflies, according to Darcie MacMahon, the museum's associate director.
The United States Department of Agriculture also requires the museum to keep the exotic insects from going into the wild.
“We actually have a permit from the USDA that requires us to keep butterflies contained,” McMahon said. “And when a storm is coming up, if we have a hurricane warning, the permit requires that we remove them just in case the storm would damage the structure and the butterflies could escape.”
Staff members at the museum spent hours capturing all the butterflies and placing them in netted cages where they will be fed Gatorade and bananas.
The museum has not needed to remove the butterflies from their habitat since Hurricane Irma in 2017.
According to MacMahon, staff will release the butterflies back into the habitat by Thursday once staff and students are cleared to return to campus.
“During the storm, of course, everyone wants to stay home with their families and stay safe, and the butterflies will be fine with their food indoors until we can come back and release them,” she said.
Forty-nine Florida counties are now under a state of emergency for Hurricane Idalia. For more information on the storm, visit the National Hurricane Center’s website.
