All you ever needed to know about Siberian chipmunk and a butterfly exhibit farm near you

The Siberian chipmunks are similar to your garden squirrels in appearance, having five dark and white stripes of length 25 centimeters running through their backs, the middle tail almost invariably continuing till the end of their tails. Though these chipmunks are comparatively small with respect to the Red Squirrels, they can still weigh up to 50 to 150 grams depending on the time of the year. These are both diurnally and nocturnally active species and can usually be found in places with busy undergrowth like coniferous forests. Though the chipmunks are climbers, they prefer building making burrows in the ground with storage, waste and rest chambers and have been proven to be quite territorial. The chipmunks hail from the Korea and are also spread out across Hokkaido in Northern Japan, the central part of China and Russia and Northern Asia.

The Siberian chipmunks which go by the scientific name of Tamias Sibericus breed during April to June and generally have a gestation period of 35 days at the most. They breed two times a year and produce between 3 and 8 young ones at a time. If you desire to pet one of such chipmunks, you can keep them in a wired cage. They use the PVC pipes in wooden homes to hide and you can provide them with branches to climb and toys like wheels, chew toys and pumice stones to play with in their cage. To give them a sense of their natural habitat, place moisture soaked wood shavings and aspen bedding on the floor of the cage. Apart from pure water, you can feed them with a variety of fresh fruits, nuts, green vegetables and add vitamin supplements to their diet.

The chipmunks are extremely clever creatures which have been noted for their shyness and lasting memory. You can initiate intimacy by feeding them off the palm of your hand and placing pieces of your old shirts in their cage so that they learn to recognize their scent. Once scared, they would take a long time to warm up to you again.

Not only do the butterfly exhibit farms near you abound in beauty with the butterflies, each with it’s own unique pattern, but it also encourages to learn to preserve the native butterfly habitats. Hundreds and thousands of butterflies are allowed to breed in the controlled yet natural habitats of the exhibit farms. Since there are no restrictions of space as in a butterfly garden and farm, you would be able to consider your trip to be observatory and interactive. Try to wear bright colors and smell nice and you would be astounded by how the butterflies flock to be near you. Not only would you witness the different species of butterflies in the world, but also have a first hand experience of how they grow in stages and come out of the cocoon eventually. You can avail yourself and your family of a guided tour in exchange for a small fee or donation which in turn goes for the butterfly conservation efforts.

The butterfly exhibit farms near you house nectar plants and host plants for the benefit of the winged creatures. The nectar plants like sunflowers, coneflowers, hawthorn and marigolds are there so that the butterflies never have to go without food while the host plants like fennel, clovers, cottonwood, aspen, milkweed and snapdragons are the ones which the caterpillars eat and the butterflies lay eggs on. The caterpillars tend to stay on one host plant and if they don’t like the taste of its leaves, they would rather starve and die. Hence, the exhibit farms have a large number of host plants within them.