A Furry Face in the Forest This furry face belongs to the caterpillar of an Automedon giant owl butterfly – which calls the forests of South America home. The butterfly that this caterpillar will ...

He says one of his favorites is the giant owl butterfly with its strategically placed wing spots that look like owl’s eyes. The butterfly is native to Central and South America.

Before they were eerie Giant Owl butterflies, vivid little Grecian Shoemakers or sky-blue Common Morphos the size of your hand, the butterflies in the Safari Park’s jungle were pupae in a FedEx box.

In the forests of Mexico resides the giant owl butterfly (Caligo eurilochus) that flaps its papery 7-inch (18 centimeters) wings at dusk when predator birds are absent.

A Giant Owl sits on the hand of a visitor at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History Butterflies Alive! exhibit. | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom Recent research by experts from around the United States ...

The Butterfly Jungle opens Saturday, March 14 and runs through April 12, with the park temporarily extending its hours (8 a.m. to 6 p.m. instead of 9 to 5) to accommodate the Morphos-mad masses.