Visited for the first time in longer than I'd like and took advantage of the record-breaking high temperature in Omaha today.
Here are a number of things that are going on around the zoo:
First, in the Lied Jungle, work continues on a lot of the forest floor and some roof fixes are in order with some tarp hanging over portions near the Treetop Cafe.
Access to this area is from some ropes from one of the "Kapok" trees that holds up the roof. Looks to either be a fun time scaling the tree or terrifying, your pick.
The biggest news in the Lied Jungle at the moment is that I can finally confirm that the Philippine Crocodile is still at the zoo! The top netting over the enclosure has been removed and for the first time in the history of the Lied Jungle you can actually peer into that enclosure from above without the camouflage netting. The photo below is from the Malayan Tapir side of the exhibit, whereas today the crocodile was easily seen from the White Handed Gibbon side of this enclosure (my cellphone photo of the croc was not the highest quality, so I didn't post it).
Over in the Asian Highlands, I might have missed this, but I looked back through the Omaha news and didn't see anything posted, nor from official channels, but it appears that there has been a Snow Leopard birth. I had not noticed this sign portion before until today.
It looks like there have been some drainage improvements made to the Indian Rhino habitat, as some additional drainage structures have been added. The thing that stood out to me the most however was the addition of "Flexamat" along the side of the exhibit that continually ruts from erosion. I've used this material in a bunch of my engineering projects in the City of Omaha and it cuts down erosion a ton. Good to see the zoo making use of it. Essentially it is a blanket of concrete cobbles that allows grass to grow through it over time and fortifies the earth below it.
In Gorilla Valley, you can only make it as far as the restrooms in the tunnel walk portion before it is completely blocked off due to the Orangutan overhaul.
From the reverse side of things, there is quite the mobilization of field office equipment on the grounds of the former Cat Complex for the Orangutan overhaul.
And lastly, the boardwalk for the Orangutan Forest outdoor portion has been removed. Funnily enough, there was a male orangutan in the exhibit hanging high on the net overseeing the construction site from high above (dark spot on the far left of the photo in the tree branches).
