Zoo/Aquarium 11: Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo
We've reached the climax. This may or may not be the last new zoo I visit this year, but it will certainly go down as the highlight. In fact, I actually spent way more time at the zoo then I originally intended. The night I arrived in the city, a massive storm came in that decimated nature and knocked out my hotels power. Apparently it was the worst storm in 100 years, talk about timing. It get's better though. That same storm made its way to Chicago a little while later. I visited the zoo one day and planned on going home the next, but after several weather delays my flight was canceled. Whoopee! After the initial frustration and exhaustion wore off I realized this was the perfect excuse to spend one more day at the zoo. Insanely enough, the storm came back the following night meaning my flight got delayed a second time, so I spent two extra days in Omaha then I initially intended. It was so worth it though, as I spent about 13 hours between two days at the zoo and covered everything that was open.
I don't think I have ever been more excited for a zoo before. I have visited the San Diego parks many times in the past before I can remember, so going back there didn't hit in the same way this did. I had good reason to be excited. Community support for the zoo is stronger than anywhere I ever seen. It may have something to do with the fact that Omaha isn't exactly known for having much exciting to do, but just about every person I spoke to raved about how great the zoo was and how much its constantly improving. Henry Doorly has seen over 150 million dollars in improvements just within the past five years. Those are some mind boggling numbers to say the least and I have never heard of a zoo spend that much on rejuvenating their grounds in such a short span of time. Being one of the only major attractions in a fairly uneventful city means that donors are lined up to contribute. The front desk at my hotel even had a mural of the Desert Dome behind it. Safe to say, I wen't into Omaha with some lofty expectations. However, despite my excitement going in, Omaha did not meet my exceptions... it surpassed them!
It's hard to know where to begin so I'm just going to go in the order of what I saw during my visit. I started off going through the four mega buildings that surround the zoos entrance. I must say I really appreciate the zoo having all of the major indoor attractions at the very front. This makes it so even in the winter guests can come in and comfortably see these exhibits right away without having to trek several miles. America's largest and probably best indoor rainforest kicked things off. The oldest of the mega buildings holds up quite well and I was pleased to see a lot of the major animal husbandry issues have been rectified. Clouded leopards have been removed from the dark cave they were stuck in, the snake in a log display is no more, and rock staircases have been added to the tapir exhibits to allow them access to the upper portion of the enclosure. All of these have been very good changes. All in all though I'll admit I did find myself to slightly underwhelmed by the Lied Jungle. The lush greenery is wonderful and there is a lot to like here, but there are still some flaws that I would like to see addressed in the future. Conditions for the tapirs have been greatly improved, but I'm still not keen on keeping large mammals, especially pachyderms, indoors year round. I also still found the exhibits to be a bit cramped. This all applies to the pygmy hippo exhibits as well. I was actually somewhat shocked at how tiny one of the hippo exhibits were - the one where you really have to look over the fence to get a good view. The monkey islands are all good, but I think they look better than they really are because of all the tropical furnishings surrounding the islands. In reality, their fine but nothing exceptional. Brookfield's Tropic World is often criticized for the fake appearance of it's enclosures, a fair complaint no doubt but one thing no one can deny is the absolutely massive space for the monkeys and gibbons both horizontally and vertically. The gibbons at Brookfield can climb 80 feet in the air and have ample ground space, while the gibbons at Omaha have similar fake trees much are stuck a small island. Even with these gripes the Lied Jungle is still a beautiful building. The primate islands are good, I love how they integrate tropical fish into the moats of the exhibits, and my favorite feature has to be the free flight bats. Over 100 bats have free access to the whole building and one even flew directly over my head. Incredible! In the past they had free ranging golden lion tamarins as well, but I did not see any. Does anyone know if they are still present?
The Desert Dome was up next, and this was probably my least favorite of the four Simmon's era mega buildings. I still had a great time here, but I think it tries to do too much. Like the Lied Jungle, the worst animal husbandry offenders have been fixed. The rock hyrax and rock wallabies have been removed from their pitiful shelves and ledges, the outdate hummingbird canyon was replaced by the much more impressive rattlesnake canyon, and pumas have been replaced ocelot - although that last one is a bit questionable still. First, the good. The various herp exhibits are all great. I loved the expansive snake collection and the perentie was another big highlight. Dwarf mongoose had an excellent exhibit, and perhaps the most bizarre yet cool experience of the day was observing 20+ rattlesnakes all piled on top of one another. Various keepers were watching this phenomenon and were dumbfounded on what was happening. I'm not sure what was causing this behavior, but it was amazing to see and this was probably takes the cake for the best rattlesnake exhibit I have ever seen. Now, even with all that good the dome does still have some glaring flaws. The exhibits for bobcat, swift fox, bat-eared fox, African wild cat and blue-bellied roller are all way too small. They are essentially built into rock crevices and are all dark and incredibly cramped. All of these animals need to be replaced with inhabits more suited to these small spaces. I also wasn't very fond of the klipspringer exhibit. It was rather small and it seems unnecessary for it to still be here when they have an infinitely better outdoor exhibit in African Grasslands. Aside from these issues, I still enjoyed the Desert Dome. From a visitor stand point it's marvelous. I found myself constantly looking up in amazement of the size of the dome and the various rockwork and sand displays. It was awe inspiring. However, the true excellence of this building isn't what lies on the surface, rather beneath it.
It may seem like I've been a little underwhelmed with Omaha so far, but that came to screeching halt here. Kingdoms of the Night may just be my favorite indoor zoo exhibit of all time. It was incredible! It's honestly a little mind blowing how they were able to built this underneath the worlds largest geodesic dome. I have seen only a few nocturnal houses in person, but this blows anything I have ever seen out of the water. This complex has all of the aspects of a great zoo exhibit. Cool and unique animals, marvelous visual displays, and creative and innovative exhibtry. Bats are a huge focus here with I believe at least seven or eight species on display. Most of them are shown off in this amazing cave that imitates daylight from the top. My jaw audibly dropped when coming across this, almost as much as when I came across the earlier fruit bat display which has hundreds of bats clustered together in a large cave display. I was under the impression that it was a large walkthrough exhibit, but I didn't even care when I found it wasn't because I was too mesmerized by the seemingly never ending movement of the bats. The blind cave fish pool was shocking as at a first glance, it seems there was nothing stopping the average visitor form not noticing the tank and falling 16 feet deep in a dark abyss. Luckily, there is a sheet of glass that would prevent that from occurring. Many other highlights here include seeing my first active aardvarks in years, the aquarium for Johnson's crocodile and an assortment of turtles and fish, and of course the brilliant swamp display. The latter in particular was marvelous. Seeing an active beaver swim through the murky waters unearth the visitor boardwalk and throughout much of the exhibit. The American alligator displays was also seriously cool. I will say that it must be pretty eerie to be in here by yourself, just you and gators in a dark space. Sounds fun. As an aside, does anyone know what the empty exhibit directly before exiting was home to? However, even after all of that my favorite exhibit had to be the South America exhibit. At first I didn't see anything, then a trio of prehensile-tailed porcupines wander into view. Then a pair of night monkeys emerge from the darkness. Then after that three-banded and nine-banded armadillos coming scurrying across the exhibit floor. And what do you know, a pair of red-rumped agouti are resting in the corner. What a superb display this is. So many cool species all sharing a space. It was so fun playing where's Waldo and slowly finding more and more species the more I looked. I wonder how all of these animals coexist. One of the agouti did nip at one of the night monkeys that got a bit too close, but they didn't seem to mind the armadillo squeezing between them to get by. Either way, the brilliant design and constant surprise I felt walking through this nocturnal palace puts up at the top as of the greatest zoo exhibits I have ever seen, definitely the best indoor exhibit.
To round out the last of the Simmons era mega buildings, the Scott Aquarium, my favorite aquarium I have seen inside of a zoo. What really made this building for me was the seabird exhibits. I haven't seen puffins in years and I had a great time watching these energetic little auks. A keeper entered the exhibit to toss some ice into the pool which enticed the puffins to jump in. Watching them dive from the highest point of the exhibit into the pool was super cool. Almost as cool as the next door penguin exhibit with over 80 individuals. Most cold weather penguin exhibits are kinda bad, not here though. A large exhibit with a nicely sized pool, impressive underwater viewing area, and there were four snow machines cracking constantly dropping snow from the top of the exhibit. I couldn't help but notice one of the king penguins who stood directly the snowfall, still as statue, until every minute or so when he would shake off the snow that had piled on top of his head. Very funny. It was also entering to watch two of the gentoo penguins chasing one another through the water, quickly swimming through the water to keep up. I spent a combined 30 minutes watching the puffins and the penguins and this makes up one of my favorite moments during my visit. The rest of the aquarium was also very good. The shark tunnel was very neat and for first time visitors it must be spectacular. Japanese spider crabs, super awesome! Besides that theres mainly just an assortment of excellently done saltwater tanks brimming with life, ending with an amazon tank with a toucan in the tree tops. The Aquarium has received many renovations and overhauls since its 90's unveiling, and it has continued to impress all these years later.
The Butterfly and Insect Pavilion was probably my least favorite area of the zoo. Not because its bad, just because I don't really have much of an interest in insects so this building didn't do too much for me. Nice butterfly walkthrough, great collection of insects including an impressive grasshopper display, but I just don't have too much else to say besides that. The set up is also kinda awkward with one being forced to go through the butterfly wing (pun not intended) of the building before entering the insect section.
African Grasslands kicks off the Dennis Pate era projects and this was my personal favorite exhibit in the whole zoo. It was absolutely excellent from beginning to finish and did not miss a beat. First I want to give some attention to the zoo starting things off with a series of smaller exhibits. I love when zoos incorporate smaller species alongside the big megafauna and African Grasslands opens off with a kopje section with a mixed species enclosure for meerkats, klipspringers, and leopard tortoises. Adjacent to this exhibit are habitats for white-throated monitors and rock hyrax alongside a variety of birds. These are excellently done exhibits and I especially like seeing large monitor lizards in an outdoor habitat. Also the rock hyrax finally get justice after being stuck the shelves of Desert Dome for all these years with a wonderful netted over exhibit. Of course, where things really get good is the main savannah which is about two acres in size. A breathtaking view for giraffes, impala, kudu, ostriches and allegedly white storks - although I did not see any. White rhinos were intended to be included in the mix, but the giraffes were afraid of the pachyderms so they were moved to a sectioned off part of the savannah that is another half acre. The antelope can still access the rhino portion however and I noticed a few kudu sneak through the fence into their territory. So it total the savannah is over 2.5 acres in size and is superb from start to finish, with amazing views from every angle. The tall trees that dot the landscape only make the exhibit more impressive and I loved how the whole exhibit was built on a hillside so it naturally slopes into the barrier. I also want to give recognition for the giraffe herd room. There's a lot of talk about how elephants really deserve large indoor quarters, while giraffes often don't receive the same discussion and even in some relatively newer exhibits they often have pretty tiny indoor exhibits. No at Omaha though, the giraffe barn is the best I've ever seen and is leaps and bounds ahead of most giraffe barns. As a bonus, I even saw the new calf which was less than two weeks old right up close by the fence. Adorable little animal.
Similarly, the Elephant Family Quarters is the best indoor elephant exhibit I have ever seen. It's the largest on the continent and like the giraffe barn won't win any rewards for naturalism, but its still aesthetically pleasant. The layer of sand on the floor, various enrichment devices, feeder walls and a generally large amount of space makes this an excellent elephant barn. The excellence continues with the outdoor exhibits. One is only 3/4s of an acre, but the larger yard is nearly three acres and the elephants share the exhibit with plains zebras. The larger exhibit was phenomenal, completed with a large pool and some protected trees. Unfortunately, the elephants were never in this yard during my visit, only the zebras. It was almost comical to see such a massive yard for just two zebras, so I could only imagine how it looked to see the elephants enjoying this space. Also, another super minor only-someone-on-zoochat-would-care complaint I have is that the smaller elephant yard has a large production plant in the background that could have been covered up with some well placed vegetation, but its rather exposed and sort of dampers the appearance. Again, thats just me nit-picking. Initially I was slightly disappointed not to see much interesting behavior from the elephants during my time at the zoo, but that didsipoitnment was quickly undone. Earlier in the day all of the animals were indoors, but later in the day I enjoyed the best experience I ever had watching elephants in zoos. This was the first time I've seen a large herd all together, not with the bull sectioned off or the animals divided up between multiple exhibits. They were in the smaller outdoor yard and I saw a ton of natural behaviors. One of the elephants began rolling around in the mud on its side, while the bull began tossing mud all over himself, almost putting me and other visitors in the splash zone. They were probably reliving themselves from the nearly 100 degree weather. Milwaukee is the only zoo I visit consistently that has elephants and while I enjoy watching them, they only have three older females and much of the time they all can't be on exhibit together at once. It pales in comparison to seeing a naturally formed breeding herd of six - soon to be seven - in one of the best elephant complexes in any zoo.
The remainder of African Grasslands is slightly disconnected thanks to the lagoon, which was an existing area integrated into the complex. Pink-backed pelicans are part of the lagoon and have plenty of swimming space and a dense island, while an older island for black-handed spider monkeys is directly across and while it's not the best looking exhibit, it gets the job done. There also were hundreds of koi in the pond and guests were filled with delight tossing them food from the covered bridge. The excellent design of African Grasslands doesn't come to end however. Enter the phenomenal lion habitat. The superb kopje recreation makes up a huge rock mountain making this the tallest lion exhibit in North America. The lions rested on top all the times I came through this area. Its clear this is their favorite spot and I don't blame them. They have a view of the entire zoo from up there. I've gone back and fourth on whether or not I prefer this or Lion Camp at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and while I think the Safari Park may be better for the animals because of the year round sunny weather, I think this one may slightly edge it out design wise thanks to the kopje mountain. Cheetahs also have a wonderful hilly habitats nearby, and there are two more hooftsock yards. Bongos and blue cranes share another hillside paddock. Great exhibit, although bongos were an interesting choice for a grasslands exhibit. Regardless, the exhibit is splendid and I love how close you can get to the animals. Aside from a trio of basic exhibits for spur-tithed tortoises, sable antelope round out the area in yet another fantastic, acre large yard. However, (and I realize the irony in this given a reason discussion
) having only two antelope made the exhibit feel rather underutilized. Introducing some more animals here, whether that be more sables or another species entirely, would make this habitat a whole lot more interesting. Even with that minor gripe, its a fantastic way to end a fantastic exhibit complex. One of my favorite exhibits of all time. One last thing to note is the sky tram that goes over the entire complex. Spectacular views of the savannah, bongo/blue crane exhibit, cheetah exhibit, and best of all the lion exhibit which gets you up close to the top of the mountain. A breathtaking sight.
After spending 73 million dollars on a state of the art African exhibit, most zoos would take a few years off and allow guests to soak up the new area for as long as possible. Omaha isn't like most zoos, and immediately after the grasslands was completed they got to work on a 23 million dollar asian complex. Asian Highlands is brilliant, even with some rather typical ruined temple and asian village theming. It continues a lot of the same design choices that were done in African Grasslands. One of these, is having smaller, lesser known animals, along side major ABC species. Again I love when zoos do this, I think it makes the whole environment feel so much more alive, then just having the popular species. I was also impressed to see the zoo bring in some pretty rare species in zoos like Père David's deer and Chinese goral into a new exhibit. Tufted deer, white-naped cranes, and a mixed species habitat for red pandas and reeves muntjac are the smallest exhibits that you see right away. I like this because I think seeing the smaller species first and building up the well known animals creates a good since of anticipation. The Indian rhino and Père David's deer exhibit was one of my favorites and I think this was a pivotal moment for me during my visit. I kept going back and forth on rather or not Omaha was my favorite zoo, as for the longest time San Diego was always untouchable in my mind, and I thought that would never change. However, watching powerful Indian rhinos alongside rare deer directly in front of one of the worlds largest aviaries, with the Desert Dome on the top of a hill off in the distance, was a remarkable image. Seeing this many excellent zoo habitats complimenting the view was what it took for me to finally accept that this is the greatest zoo I have ever visited. More on that at the end on this piece.
The remainder of Asian Highlands got even better. The takin and goral exhibit is spectacular with amazing rockwork. However, I was a little disappointed by the snow leopard enclosure which was a bit small for such a new addition. Not bad, but considering the size and scope of the rest the complex I think they could have done better. Luckily the tiger exhibit made up for it and was super impressive. Similar design to the lion exhibit in how there is a mesh viewing area with seating and a viewing area with glass windows. I wrapped things up by walking in during the back half of a sloth bear training demo. I've had pretty bad luck viewing this species in the past so this was a real treat. I only watched for about a minute as the bear inhaled some fruit juice and demonstrated several trained behaviors, before he decided he had enough for the day and lumbered back into its night den knocking around some logs along the way. At first I was slightly disappointed by the sloth bear enclosure, but the more I looked around I actually found it to be quite good. Large logs and varied terrain really make this enclosure work well. I think I just expected something different but it was still pretty excellent the more I think about it.
The newly revamped Simmons Aviary opened up just two weeks before my visit. The new renovation did wonders and the old deteriorated wooden boardwalks have been replaced with clean, sustainable wood and wired fencing to improve the views for younger kids. The stock list isn't the most exciting, but the enclosure itself is great with tall trees and a sizable pond. I also really appreciate the zoo redirecting the boardwalk into one big loop instead of having multiple entrances and exits. It makes less convoluted and helps guests avoid missing other nearby areas. Omaha is also now one of the only American zoos do not have the wings of their flamingos clipped, a practice banned in Europe which is finally starting to become commonplace in American zoos. They have access to whole aviary but chose to only stay by their designated viewing area near their night quarters. Despite an underwhelming species list, this is still a super nice aviary and it's nice to see some real care put into, as in the past it looked a bit unkept. I still prefer San Diego's four big walkthrough aviaries and Miamis Wings of Asia, although its simply unfair to compare those two to the Simmons aviary. While the former two have lush vegetation year round that simply isn't possible in Nebraska, so I will still called this aviary the best of its kind in the midwest. I think there may be a slight miscommunication in regards to the size of this structure. I've seen this aviary refaced to be four acres in size in the past, however it definitely is not. In fact, my measurements show its less than half that, being only 1.5 acres in size. Don't get me wrong that's still very large, but when did the narrative that this aviary four acres size start?
Expedition Madagascar is only 11 years old, but is shockingly mediocre. This was the last project complete under Lee G Simmons and man am I glad that Mr. Pate took over when he did. There was so much potential in this complex and I am baffled as to how they dropped the ball so hard on some design decisions. The ring-tailed lemur island for example, what was the point in making that a tiny little island when they could have just filled the pond and netted over the whole area giving the lemurs more space and creating a much more pleasant appearance? Don't even get me started on that fake baobab, hideous! The walkthrough lemur exhibit was closed, but I was still able to get a good view and it looked good even with the obviously fake trees. Unfortunately my favorite type of lemur, sifakas, are no longer at the zoo and haven't been for many years. It sounds like they were all wiped out due to an illness which is horrible and their former exhibit (now with black and white-ruffed lemurs) is probably one of the strongest exhibits in this complex. Things don't get much better indoors. The remaining lemur species are all in fake, too small glass boxes that would fit right in at Saint Louis or Lincoln Parks historic primate houses, except this exhibit is barely a decade old while those both date back many to may moons ago. Similar exhibits for a few bird species are also here and I could argue those are even worse as those animals have little flying room. Theres no personality or theme to this building beyond Madagascar animals in glass boxes. Nothing unique or at all creative which is confusing considering this building was planned by the same guy who made the Lied Jungle, Desert Dome, and Kingdoms of the Night. Originally there was no outdoor access for any of these animals, but luckily sometime around 2016 or 2017 a series of off exhibit outdoor cages were built behind the building. I wish they had on show outdoor habitats to begin with but thats certainly better than nothing. Despite my list of grievances, there were two big highlights for me in this building. I saw an active fossa dashing all over its exhibit - which I actually thought was pretty good - and it was a pleasant surprise seeing them active and not pace lethargically like at several zoos. However, the big highlight here was my first aye-aye. They share an exhibit with straw-colored fruit bats and this was far and away the best exhibit in the building. I was under the impression aye-aye were the same size as a bushbaby or mouse lemur, so you can only imagine my shock to find that they were about the size of a red panda! They were running all over the exhibit, stopping to eat, and running around some more. This combined with the constantly active bats made for an amazing display and I was giddy watching this play out and it elevated the complex in my mind overall.
Finally, we come to the zoos newest major addition, Sea Lion Shores. Simply put, the greatest pinniped exhibit I have ever seen in any zoo. At least five California sea lions and two harbor seals in a spacious Pacific Northwest coastline. There is no underwater tunnel like Saint Louis, but there is still a beautiful underwater viewing area featuring a massive windows blending in with the rocks. There were some kids that had a blue rubber ball and one of the sea lions would stop following it. They were having a great time tossing the ball around and the sea lion was persistent in chasing it down. While I was watching above the surface the big male sea lion jumped up on one of the rocks and began vocalizing before diving back into the water. The zoo also took some notes from zoos overseas and incorporated some innovative features such as a wave machine which created crashing waves near the underwater viewing cave. There is also a pupping beach to help future pups learn how to swim in shallow waters. I loved the attention to detail here and if the future Alaskan complex thats being planned to compliment this exhibit is anywhere near the same level of quality, we may have another best of its kind complex on the horizon.
After spending two full days at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, I was exhausted, but satisfied. I did go through the Children's Adventure Trails, but there wasn't anything of note I feel I need to say about it other than I think its a fantastic area for kids, and positioning it in close proximity to the smaller North Entrance, Alaskan Adventure splash park, and Glacier Bay Landing plaza with food and refreshments is an genius design decision. Keeping the kid friendly sections congested to one area make the rest of the zoo less geared towards children's which makes it all better for the average zoo nerd. Gorilla Valley is still being renovated and was originally going to open two days before my visit, but has pushed back at least several weeks which was disappointing. Because of ongoing construction Orangutan Forest was also closed and I could only catch a fleeting glimpse of one of the red apes on the ground. Not to mention the Cat Complex which was home to 85 big cats has been shut down and will be demolished in the coming years. That means despite all of that there are still three major areas I didn't see. Omaha really has become a two day zoo, the only one besides San Diego and perhaps Bronx to hold that title.
Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo is the single greatest zoo I have ever visited. San Diego held the title for all that time for me at least, but it appears they have finally be dethroned in my mind. Now that I have visited the two greatest zoos in America in the eyes of many, I was going to make a thread comparing the two zoos to decide which one was truly the best, however
@snowleopard beat me to it so I'll have more to say over on that thread in the coming days. I will say that if I had visited Omaha seven or eight years ago there is no way I would ever even considering it one of the best. I may not have even put it in the top 5 because there were a truckload of problems and outdated exhibits at the time. As much as Lee G Simmons is revered in the zoo community, the work Dennis Pate has accomplished is already leagues ahead of anything built under Simmons reign. The Desert Dome and Lied Jungle are great buildings that had some major animal husbandry flaws and many were fixed or improved under Dennis Pates watch. Exhibition Madagascar is already outdated in many ways and quite the recent attractions blow everything else away. I think Simmons created exhibits that looked really nice and created good vistas and dioramas for guests, but weren't necessarily best for the animals. The hyrax ledges for example must have looked neat upon first glance, but were horrible for the animals. African Grasslands, Asian Highlands, Sea Lions Shores and the other various additions and tweaks during the Dennis Pate era both look great and are great for the animals. With the master plan coming to a close, Dennis Pate is already looking ahead to even more additions in the future. An Alaskan complex with polar bears, grizzly bears, Canadian lynx and sea otters is being planned, as well as a replacement for the former cat complex which could be anything. The next project is a redo of the Desert Dome pavilion which is yet another enhancement to visitor experience. This really is a zoo that keeps reinventing itself and I am eager to continue to watch its progress and one day return.
To have an already very good zoo spend a fortune on revamping 45 acres of new exhibits in 5 years is extraordinary. After the upcoming Desert Dome Plaza renovation, then no one truly knows what will come next but it seems as if Omaha has an unlimited supply of money. As much as I'd love to see a North American section (bears, otters, etc.), I would also like to see the mammal habitats inside the Desert Dome tweaked to modern standards.
