Vlindertempel (Butterfly Temple), Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen

Wildlands Adventure Zoo grew out of the move of Emmen zoo, which left the town centre for a 22-hectare site. According to EdenParks, construction began in May 2014, the buildings were handed over in November 2015 and the old zoo closed on 31 December 2015. King Willem-Alexander officially opened the park on 18 March 2016 and the public was admitted a week later; the Dutch Wikipedia gives 25 March 2016 for the opening of the Vlindertempel. Dierenpark Emmen and the agency Jora Vision designed and themed the park, with VolkerWessels as main contractor.

The Vlindertempel is the entrance building of Jungola, the park's tropical world. It is conceived, outside as well as inside, as a temple ruin, and its form draws on the remains of Angkor. The builder AVAG presents it as a new home for butterflies, Chinese alligators, otters and other small animals. Its project sheet sets it apart from the large Rimbula hall: EdenParks calls it 'Kas 2', and the two mapped buildings stand about 290 m apart.

The temple continues to host births. On 11 May 2026 the zoo announced that two young Fischer's turacos had left the nest and were perching in the temple's trees and shrubs; it was the first successful breeding by this pair, and only two other European parks had obtained hatchings of the species.

EdenParks, part of Smiemans Projecten, supplied the steel frame, the facades, the roof and the doors. For the covering the builder chose a three-layer ETFE foil, described as highly wear-resistant, insulating and radiation-resistant, and transmitting the full light spectrum, which the same source says butterflies need. The Dutch Wikipedia speaks of ETFE air cushions.

The whole covers about 1,100 m² with the breeding rooms, of which about 1,000 m² is open to visitors; behind the scenes are plant and butterfly breeding facilities. Inside, the temple ruin organises the route. Large heads of an imaginary bird, the 'laya laya', overlook the entrance. A lobby holds a large terrarium of reticulated pythons and murals telling the temple's story; the central part houses a large paludarium, a climbing route, the Tempel Trail, runs past a terrarium of emerald monitors, and a plaza is dominated by an artificial strangler fig.

The zoo's page on its butterflies speaks of more than 40 exotic species from Asia, South America and Africa, bred on site; according to Wikipedia about twenty species are kept at any one time and more than 100 over a year. The zoo names the blue morpho (Morpho peleidis), the owl butterflies (genus Caligo), the leaf butterfly (Kallima inachus), the malachite (Siproeta stelenes), the monarch (Danaus plexippus) and swallowtails of the genus Papilio. It lists host plants such as banana, ginger, heliconias, bamboo, ficus, oleander and milkweed.

Birds include the red-crested turaco, Fischer's turaco and the Palawan peacock-pheasant, alongside anoles, emerald monitors, reticulated pythons, crocodiles in the paludarium, black spiny stick insects (Eurycantha calcarata) and giant African millipedes. The tropical vegetation comes largely from Costa Rica, according to Wikipedia.

The Vlindertempel opens the Jungola route: the zoo's site describes an adventure route through the temple, before the large Rimbula greenhouse, about 290 m away, where the Rimbula River boat ride is found. Rimbula has been the subject of a transformation project begun in October 2025, while the official works page, updated on 10 September 2026, reported no closure of the temple. Emmen station is about a quarter of an hour's walk from the park, according to NS, whose guide lists the temple among butterfly gardens that can be visited in any season.

It is visited as part of a day at the zoo, with Rimbula in the same grounds.