Surprisingly enough, Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo is home to a number of record-holding exhibits, including the world's largest indoor desert, the world's largest nocturnal exhibit, the world's largest indoor swamp, the world's second-largest free-flight aviary, and America's largest indoor rainforest. Whew!
All of that comes together to make what is, in my opinion, one of the very best zoos in the country. Certainly one of the more unique zoos you could visit.
The zoo is far too big for me to talk about every animal (as much as I might like to), so I'll just highlight the zoo's eight best areas and exhibits. Conveniently arranged for those of you with short attention spans with my favorites first!
All of that comes together to make what is, in my opinion, one of the very best zoos in the country. Certainly one of the more unique zoos you could visit.
The zoo is far too big for me to talk about every animal (as much as I might like to), so I'll just highlight the zoo's eight best areas and exhibits. Conveniently arranged for those of you with short attention spans with my favorites first!
The Desert Dome
The zoo's most prominent exhibit is also my favorite - the desert dome. At 137 feet tall, the dome is the world's largest glazed geodesic dome, and can be seen from all over the zoo.
Just like a real desert, the inside of the dome is hot and dry - it is kept at a temperature of 72-75 degrees year round. The glass in the dome is even designed to help maintain the temperature - the glass panels near the top are more heavily tinted to reduce the heat of the summer sun, while the lower panels are more translucent to better take in the heat of the winter sun. Clever! There is even an intricate guttering system that collects rainwater, which is then used to water the plants inside.
The terrain inside is very believable desert terrain, with rocky outcrops, sand dunes, and cacti and other desert plants. Combined with the temperature it really does make you feel like you've entered a desert. The dome exhibits animals native to three different deserts around the world - The Namib desert in southwestern Africa, the Australian desert, and the Sonoran desert of the southwestern US.
Just like a real desert, the inside of the dome is hot and dry - it is kept at a temperature of 72-75 degrees year round. The glass in the dome is even designed to help maintain the temperature - the glass panels near the top are more heavily tinted to reduce the heat of the summer sun, while the lower panels are more translucent to better take in the heat of the winter sun. Clever! There is even an intricate guttering system that collects rainwater, which is then used to water the plants inside.
The terrain inside is very believable desert terrain, with rocky outcrops, sand dunes, and cacti and other desert plants. Combined with the temperature it really does make you feel like you've entered a desert. The dome exhibits animals native to three different deserts around the world - The Namib desert in southwestern Africa, the Australian desert, and the Sonoran desert of the southwestern US.
Ayup, looks like a desert.
Can you find the animals in this photo?
Be sure to look around you as you're passing through the dome. Many animals exhibits are obvious (behind fences, netting, or moats), but many blend in with the desert terrain, like the above hyrax exhibit. Hyraxes are excellent rock climbers (they have think pads on their feet that help their grip), so their exhibit consists of a series of rock ledges. In the above photo, you can see a few hyraxes huddled together about halfway up the wall. Here's a closer look:
Hey! Don't stick your tongue out at me, mister!
There are also several different bird species that roam free in the dome, so remember to look up to the sky or in the high tree branches, as well as down on the ground around the bushes.
this cape thick-knee is free to roam wherever it wants
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Look around carefully, or you might miss seeing animals like this adorable little quail!
Other animals include peccaries, ocelots, coatimundis, wallabies, klipspringers, and many different bird species. The path even winds through the rocks, where you can see reptile exhibits of snakes and lizards.
monitor lizard
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klipspringer
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My favorite exhibit was the roadrunners. They were really active when I was there - the male was busy trying to impress the female. He was carrying around a feather, puffing himself up really big, raising the crest of feathers on his head, and chasing her all around their exhibit. She never let him catch her while I was there, though.
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Kingdoms of the Night
At the end of the desert dome, you go down a flight of stairs and you're in the world's largest nocturnal exhibit: Kingdoms of the Night. The day/night cycles are reversed in the exhibit, so that you can see all these animals that are normally active at night. They have many different kinds of animals, including snakes, lizards, frogs, aardvarks, springhares, and even a colony of naked mole rats, which live in what looks like a big complex of hamster tubes. The middle area of the exhibit is dedicated to caves, even including recreated stalagmites and stalactites, and is home to several huge colonies of different species of bats! I don't have too many photos of this because I'm still mastering how to take good low-light photos with my camera, but I did get this totally badass photo of a frog.
The last section of the exhibit contains the world's largest indoor swamp, which contains beavers, ducks, alligators, and more. The boardwalk-like path winds around and through the swamp, giving you a good chance to see what's here.
The world's largest indoor swamp.
I should note that it is DARK in here. I mean, obviously, it's a nocturnal exhibit, but it can be a bit hard to see where you're going at times. So if you're here with your 90-year-old grandmother who has vision problems, maybe hold her hand so she knows where the path is.
The Lied Jungle
The other true showpiece of the Omaha Zoo is the Lied Jungle - America's largest indoor rainforest. Much like the desert dome, you really feel like you're walking through the environment. The building is filled with lush vegetation, and you can hear the occasional calls of birds and monkeys. There are little pools and streams on the floor, and you'll even pass by a few waterfalls.
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When you first enter the rainforest, you emerge onto an elevated walkway at the level of the treetops which encircles the entire perimeter of the building. From this walkway you get a great overview of the jungle. It also puts you on the same level as the animals that dwell in the treetops, including several kinds of monkeys and gibbons.
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As the elevated path winds around the room, it goes past trees full of monkeys, over pools, and through tunnels where you will see exhibits containing smaller animals like lizards and snakes. If you look carefully, you can even see a small colony of bats sleeping behind one of the waterfalls.
a sleeping bat
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a pygmy hippopotamus
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After making the loop around the building on the elevated walkway, you descend to another path that takes you through the jungle at ground level. As the path looks around the various ponds and streams, new aquatic animals become visible. The path even descends a bit to give you a look underwater in some of the ponds.
spotted stingrays
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arapaima
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And as you're passing through the ground level, take a sharp look through the underbrush - you never know what animals you may find there!
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The Butterfly and Insect Pavilion
Right across from the Lied Jungle is the butterfly house. The butterflies are in this large greenhouse, and you can go right in with them, after passing through two sets of sliding doors to make sure no butterflies escape. Once inside, you're in a room with hundreds of butterflies! Many of them will fly right past you, and occasionally they'll even land on someone. The most common species is the Blue Morpho, which has these vibrant electric blue wings (top right photo).
As with the zoo's other walkthrough exhibits, make sure you look around for hidden animals! In addition to butterflies, the greenhouse is also home to a few bird species, including hummingbirds!
As with the zoo's other walkthrough exhibits, make sure you look around for hidden animals! In addition to butterflies, the greenhouse is also home to a few bird species, including hummingbirds!
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After exiting the butterfly habitat, you pass through a small room that houses hundreds of cocoons of the various butterfly species, just waiting for the butterflies to burst out of them and take flight. It was interesting to see the variety of colors and shapes of cocoons that different butterflies make.
After this room, you enter another greenhouse that is dedicated to other insects and arachnids, including grasshoppers, katydids, cockroaches, centipedes, ants, walking sticks, and some huge tarantulas.
After this room, you enter another greenhouse that is dedicated to other insects and arachnids, including grasshoppers, katydids, cockroaches, centipedes, ants, walking sticks, and some huge tarantulas.
The Scott Aquarium
One other feature that sets the Omaha Zoo apart from many other zoos is that it has an aquarium right there within the zoo. Plus, in addition to the aquarium itself, many other exhibits (like the Lied Jungle and Kingdoms of the Night) contain aquatic exhibits that show the fish that inhabit those environments.
The aquarium is pretty big, and houses a wide variety of animals, including sharks, stingrays, octopus, eels, penguins, murres, auks, a large jellyfish area, and many different types of fish.
The first exhibit you see when you enter is a large "C"-shaped tank filled with pompano fish. You can stand in the middle of the exhibit and watch the pompano swim in a big arc around you against this bright blue backdrop.
The aquarium is pretty big, and houses a wide variety of animals, including sharks, stingrays, octopus, eels, penguins, murres, auks, a large jellyfish area, and many different types of fish.
The first exhibit you see when you enter is a large "C"-shaped tank filled with pompano fish. You can stand in the middle of the exhibit and watch the pompano swim in a big arc around you against this bright blue backdrop.
Another always-popular exhibit is the penguins. They've got at least three different species (king, rockhopper, and gentoo), and the exhibit includes plenty of rock space and a huge pool for them to swim in.
The exhibit even includes a snow machine, which this king penguin was clearly enjoying.
I also liked their tropical reef exhibit, which contained lots of brightly-colored tropical fish, including clownfish swimming among the anemones. This tank even simulated the action of ocean waves, as a big surge of water washed across the tank about every 10-15 seconds.
The water in the tank is being drawn back to the right, getting ready for the next wave to surge forward.
My favorite exhibit was the camouflaged fish. See if you can find the fish in this photo:
I think I can see four of them. And I'll give you a hint: they're all yellow. I'll show you one of them here:
There was also the appropriately-named stonefish:
Expedition Madagascar
One of the zoo's newest additions is Expedition Madagascar. Madagascar is an island off the coast of eastern Africa, and the island is noteworthy for containing a large number of endemic species - animals that are found nowhere else on earth. Like this gorgeous panther chameleon!
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The zoo also features many species of birds, frogs, turtles, and rodents, as well as several different species of Madagascar's most famous endemic residents: lemurs. Like these two mongoose lemurs all huddled up together for a rest.
There is also an outdoor lemur exhibit where lemurs can frolic around on a little island of their very own. Or in this case bask in the sun and groom each other.
This lemur was clearly enjoying being groomed.
"whahuh? Why did he stop....?"
"zzzzzzzz..."
The Cat Complex
The Omaha Zoo is also home to the of North America's largest cat facilities. It contains representatives of all four species of the genus Panthera (the "big cats"): lions, jaguars, leopards, and three different subspecies of tigers.
Jaguar
Jaguar
Indochinese Tiger
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Snow Leopard
Amur Leopard
Siberian Tiger
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I was also lucky enough to see the zoo's five 3-month-old lion cubs, born in December 2012! So cute!
This cub was not particularly interested in the bath his mother was trying to give him.
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"Listen, kid, I don't like this any more than you do, but everything's got to get clean!" Ah, motherhood.
Meanwhile, the father lion was outside in another exhibit, sleeping away.
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Simmons Aviary
This is the world's second-largest free-flight aviary. And it really is HUGE! An elevated boardwalk takes you through the center of the aviary, which puts you at eye lever with any birds in the trees, and gives you an overhead view of any birds in the little stream below you. The aviary contains hundreds of birds, including ducks, swans, storks, pheasants, flamingos, ibis, spoonbills, and more (though on the morning of my visit in March it was too cold for some of them to be out).
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storks building a nest
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In warmer weather, huge flocks of ibis and spoonbills will perch in the trees, on the rooftops, and on the railings of the aviary.
spoonbills
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scarlet ibis
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Other Notable Exhibits
You guys, I think the sun bear is Don Knotts's spirit animal!
Oh man, this post is getting LONG, and there's still plenty of zoo left to see. But I've covered my favorite areas in depth. And it's a big zoo, so even if you just see the areas I've mentioned above you should probably allow 3-4 hours at least. If you're trying to see the ENTIRE zoo, I wouldn't make any other plans for the rest of the afternoon.
I'll just list a few of the other highlights of the zoo:
-The Durham Bear Canyon exhibits black bears, polar bears, sun bears, and Andean bears, and contains little passageways so that you can view the bears from many different angles.
-If you have kids (or even if you don't), the children's area is pretty good. In addition to the standard petting zoo, they've got prairie dogs, otters, African wild dogs, and budgies (a type of parakeet)
I'll just list a few of the other highlights of the zoo:
-The Durham Bear Canyon exhibits black bears, polar bears, sun bears, and Andean bears, and contains little passageways so that you can view the bears from many different angles.
-If you have kids (or even if you don't), the children's area is pretty good. In addition to the standard petting zoo, they've got prairie dogs, otters, African wild dogs, and budgies (a type of parakeet)
An adult male orangutan trying to get some food out of this ball.
-The zoo has large exhibits for both gorillas and orangutans. Other primate exhibits, including monkeys and gibbons, can also be found within the orangutan and gorilla buildings.
-There is also a large lagoon with an island in the middle of it, which is home to several more species of monkeys.
-The zoo has a great giraffe exhibit, including an accessible indoor barn, so even if it's too cold for the giraffes to be outside, you can still see them.
-Right next door to the giraffes is a small outdoor exhibit of warm-water African penguins
-There is also a large lagoon with an island in the middle of it, which is home to several more species of monkeys.
-The zoo has a great giraffe exhibit, including an accessible indoor barn, so even if it's too cold for the giraffes to be outside, you can still see them.
-Right next door to the giraffes is a small outdoor exhibit of warm-water African penguins
The zoo's flock of peacocks coming down a path.
-There are also large areas dedicated to hoofed animals like rhinos, antelopes, gazelles, zebras, addax, and bongos.
-The zoo is also home to a flock of peacocks, which roam freely along the paths, so you might encounter them anywhere.
-The zoo is also home to a flock of peacocks, which roam freely along the paths, so you might encounter them anywhere.
The future of the Omaha Zoo
This wild goose has stopped by to take a peek at the human exhibit.
If you check out the zoo's Master Plan for the upcoming years, there are going to be some pretty exciting changes coming to the zoo! They're going to be renovating and expanding several different areas around the zoos to put in even better exhibits.
They're going to be keeping: the Lied Jungle, the desert dome, the aquarium, the butterfly house, the aviary, Madagascar, gorillas, orangutans, and the monkey lagoon. And those are all great exhibits so why mess with them?
They're going to be greatly expanding and redesigning the outdated hoofstock areas: giraffe, rhino, elephant, and the various types of antelopes.
They will then be creating new region-themed areas: African Grasslands, Equitorial Africa, Andean Foothills, Asian Highlands, Coastal Shores, and a new Adventure Education area for kids. The current cat complex, bear canyon, sea lion pool, and children's area will all be eliminated to make room for the new exhibits, and the animals from those exhibits will be relocated to their appropriate region.
Seriously, check it out. They've got maps and sketches and everything to show you what it's all going to look like. Omaha already has one of the best zoos in the country, and it's going to be getting even better. I can't wait to come back and see all this new stuff!
They're going to be keeping: the Lied Jungle, the desert dome, the aquarium, the butterfly house, the aviary, Madagascar, gorillas, orangutans, and the monkey lagoon. And those are all great exhibits so why mess with them?
They're going to be greatly expanding and redesigning the outdated hoofstock areas: giraffe, rhino, elephant, and the various types of antelopes.
They will then be creating new region-themed areas: African Grasslands, Equitorial Africa, Andean Foothills, Asian Highlands, Coastal Shores, and a new Adventure Education area for kids. The current cat complex, bear canyon, sea lion pool, and children's area will all be eliminated to make room for the new exhibits, and the animals from those exhibits will be relocated to their appropriate region.
Seriously, check it out. They've got maps and sketches and everything to show you what it's all going to look like. Omaha already has one of the best zoos in the country, and it's going to be getting even better. I can't wait to come back and see all this new stuff!
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