New Zealand butterfly collector gives away life's work

AFP English

A New Zealand enthusiast spent half a century amassing one of the world's largest private butterfly collections. As death nears, he has handed this life's work of 20,000 specimens to a museum.

Transcript

00:00This is Australia.

00:02This is the big one.

00:03Oh, the other one.

00:04Called the Blue Moon.

00:06And those three.

00:08So it's a sample number.

00:10Because for the shipping reason we consulted the butterfly in the box.

00:15I was first attracted to butterflies when I was in the United States

00:23with my parents on posting.

00:26And my mother had a garden with a flower bed of zinnias.

00:38Very bright flowers.

00:40And so they attract butterflies.

00:43Have you resorted to that in the past?

00:51Are you ready we can go to the kitchen to see?

00:55Great, yeah.

01:04I considered donating to a museum in New Zealand.

01:14But I realised that the British Museum, the Museum of Natural History,

01:23had phenomenal facilities.

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