The big news for 2024!

Next year, the park will introduce two major new features: the Animal Glade and the Butterfly Gallery. These spaces will highlight the link between plants and animals in our environment, and will be open to the public from spring 2024.

Terra Botanica, with its gardens, meadows, forest and undergrowth, is home to many wild animal species, including hedgehogs, squirrels and deer, as well as numerous bird species. Starting next spring, some 50 new free-ranging animals will join La Clairière aux animaux, an area of over 5,000 m2 between undergrowth and meadows.

Cows, goats, sheep, alpacas, pigs, rabbits, chickens, ducks, turkeys and other birds can all be seen.

"
We want to make our visitors aware of the importance of the links between plants and animals, and show their essential roles in preserving our environment.

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Pierre Watrelot, Park Manager

La Clairière aux animaux has been designed as a refuge, offering habitats adapted to the animals' needs. It is also a new environment where the animals

will be able to flourish with structures adapted to play. It will also serve as a place to explain the interactions between animals and plants.

Theaim is also to raise visitors' awareness of the importance of welcoming wild animals into their gardens, by proposing various types of home improvements, such as bat dormitories, squirrel nesting boxes, shelters and safe passageways for hedgehogs.

The Butterfly Gallery, the second major new feature

From May to September, the Butterfly Gallery will be home to hundreds of butterflies from our regions, representing some forty species. In addition to observing the butterflies, visitors to the 300 m2 aviary will discover the host plants they need to reproduce, such as sheep sorrel, nettle, thyme and blackthorn, as well as nectar-producing plants like lavender, valerian and lilac. A hatchery allows visitors to see the transformation of caterpillars into butterflies.

The butterflies of our countryside and gardens are a source of wonder and an invitation to contemplation. They play an essential role in our ecosystem as pollinators, bio-indicators and links in the food chain. Sensitive to the quality of the environment, their presence provides information on the absence or limitation of pollution.