Hidden Jungle (San Diego Zoo Safari Park)

The San Diego Zoo Safari Park, called the San Diego Wild Animal Park until the name change voted in June 2010, opened on 10 May 1972. Its official timeline dates the opening of "The Greenhouse" to 1992: an enclosed exhibit with controlled temperature and humidity for tropical plants and birds. It also served to show butterflies, and the park's first Butterfly Encounter was launched there. The greenhouse was later expanded and renamed Hidden Jungle.

Wikipedia, for its part, has Hidden Jungle opening in 1993 in the Nairobi Village area. Since then the building has hosted the Butterfly Jungle experience every spring, which the park presents as an annual celebration; an article by San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance dated 1 April 2019 describes its workings behind the scenes, and the 2026 edition opened on 21 March.

A photograph in the park's official timeline shows a hall with a green-painted metal frame, walls of large transparent panels and a translucent covering. The park calls it a "rainforest greenhouse" on its Butterfly page, and its timeline describes an enclosed exhibit with controlled temperature and humidity. The official page describes the entrance as an earthen crevasse beneath the forest floor, its mud walls lined with tree roots; Wikipedia adds that it is simulated and leads into two rooms, one representing the understory, the other the canopy.

For Butterfly Jungle the building envelope matters: in 2019 the facilities director explained that a specialist inspects the roof and windows about a month before opening, because the integrity of the outer envelope must prevent any escape. His team built an exit vestibule and fitted blowers at the top of the doors. Along the route, windows look into the pupae room where the butterflies emerge; it was kept at 80°F (≈27°C) and 80 per cent humidity in 2019.

The official page describes dense plant growth, "rich foliage in every shade of green", in which it cites orchids, bromeliads and lantanas. The birds it names are the Andean cock-of-the-rock, spangled cotinga, turquoise tanager, green honeycreeper and green-backed trogon. Wikipedia speaks instead of tropical African birds and insects.

The butterflies arrive every spring as pupae, imported from butterfly farms in Central and South America; the park includes no host plants and the butterflies do not lay eggs. In 2019 the Department of Agriculture permit listed more than 140 permitted species, and 18 shipments totalled 5,000 pupae for a nine-week run. Five horticulturists installed and replaced up to 300 flowering plants a week, short-lived displays in these conditions. In 2026 local press announced more than 30 species.

Hidden Jungle stands in the Nairobi Village area of the Safari Park, in the San Pasqual Valley in the north of the city of San Diego (the park's mailing address is in Escondido). The official site presents it as a park attraction, and entering the park requires a ticket or membership. In spring, the Butterfly Jungle experience additionally requires a separate ticket, even for members, according to NBC San Diego; in 2026 it opened on 21 March. It combines with Lorikeet Landing, a neighbour in the same area according to Wikipedia, and with the rest of the park.