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.
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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.