Press Release

For immediate release, 3/12/08

Contact:

Laura Dunn

401-785-3510 x320

Cell: 401-473-4142

Roger Williams Park Zoo’s Butterfly Conservation Efforts

to Be Showcased in White House Easter Egg Display

Providence, RI – Roger Williams Park Zoo’s efforts to save the endangered Karner blue butterfly will be showcased in an unlikely way this Easter, as part of the annual display of decorated eggs showcased in the White House Visitors Center.

The display features 51 intricately decorated eggs, one from each state and the District of Columbia. This year’s egg from Rhode Island was designed and decorated by Kimberly Mayer-Oliva of Warwick, who chose to theme the egg around the Zoo’s butterfly conservation efforts.

"  I thought the conservation program was quite a worthy and important effort and that butterflies are very appealing to lots of people,” said Mayer-Oliva. “Even the small insects and bugs are very important to our ecosystem and these conservation efforts should not go unnoticed.”

Mayer-Oliva fitted the large brown chicken egg, donated by Little Rhode Egg Farms in Foster, with filigreed and jeweled butterfly wings and filled the hollowed-out interior with a three-dimensional butterfly garden scene using sparkling Swarovski crystals, gold findings, dried flowers, glitter and architectural landscape material used for miniatures.

Mayer-Oliva presented a replica of the egg to Rhode Island First Lady Sue Carcieri at the State House in December, and just recently traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with First Lady Laura Bush in time for the White House display this month.

The Easter egg display is coordinated nationally by the American Egg Board, and locally by the Department of Environmental Management’s Division of Agriculture and Resource Marketing. This is the second year that Mayer-Oliva, an artist, ornament and product designer by trade, has decorated Rhode Island’s egg for the White House display.

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Roger Williams Park Zoo has been involved in butterfly conservation efforts since 2002, when it became a founding member of the Butterfly Conservation Initiative instituted by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Since then the Zoo has played a critical role in helping to save the Initiative’s flagship species, the Karner blue butterfly.

Working with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the New Hampshire Department of Fish and Game, the Zoo has aided in a habitat restoration project for the endangered Karner blue by propagating wild lupine, a plant essential to the butterfly’s survival, and by rearing Karner blue butterfly larvae to be transplanted to the restoration site. The ultimate goal of the project is to create a self-sustaining population.

The Zoo is also hosting a new walk-through butterfly exhibit this summer. “Flutterby: Butterflies in Bloom at Roger Williams Park Zoo” will feature hundreds of North American butterfly species, free-flying in a 2100 square-foot landscaped greenhouse. The exhibit will be open May 24 through September 1 and will require a small fee in addition to regular Zoo admission.

For more information about Roger Williams Park Zoo’s butterfly conservation efforts or about the Flutterby exhibit, visit www.rogerwilliamsparkzoo.org. Roger Williams Park Zoo is operated and maintained by the Rhode Island Zoological Society and is owned by the City of Providence.

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EDITOR’S NOTE – PHOTO AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD:

Print quality photos, including the ZooCamp photo below, are available for download at: https://www.rogerwilliamsparkzoo.org/secure/press/pics.cfm . Photos may also be obtained on disk or through e-mail by contacting the Zoo PR office.