Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium News 2024

Brayden Delashmutt said:
Honestly? I'm just gonna say it. Like the gorilla upgrades, most of this was just a waste of money since the already somewhat subpar orang exhibit has been barely changed at all. Not even natural substrate indoors!
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Granted, the building itself is excellent. Either way, the indoor enclosures are relatively subpar. Still a great development tho.
 
A couple birth announcements in the zoo's latest newsletter:

In late July, the zoo hatched three (3) Rough-Scaled Pythons, a first time hatching for the zoo. They noted the incubation lasted 63 days at 89 degrees Fahrenheit and in high-humidity. Besides the adults in the Desert Dome, one of the new hatchlings can be seen in the sunroom of the Desert Dome.

Between late June and July, the zoo hatched 388 Salt Creek Tiger Beetle larvae. The zoo notes they have 51 breeding beetles at the zoo. These beetles only live in Lancaster (where Lincoln is located) and Saunders Counties in Nebraska. In 2023, the zoo released 165 beetles back into the wild, and have released 7,692 beetles since 2011.

An Atlantic Puffin chick recently hatched, the third to the particular breeding pair that this offspring has come from. The zoo notes that the current AZA population is 125 birds at 7 facilities.

The zoo also notes that their Amphibian Conservation Area had the largest breeding event of Western Boreal Toads. While they didn't give an exact number, they believe it will be close to 4,620 which is how many toads they have released to their native habitat in Southeastern Utah. Their quote was, "it is very likely that this year will rival that number (total released) in just one season."

One other note, the zoo had all but the upper entry portion closed yesterday due to storm damage from a violent storm that hit Omaha Wednesday evening. The storm had straight line winds of up to 100 mph and sustained wind over 55 mph for over 30 minutes. One of the scarier storms we've had that I've seen in my 20 years of living in Omaha, and that includes the tornadoes that hit us earlier in the year. Almost all of Omaha had massive damage from downed trees, and our power supplier recorded the largest ever blackout from storm damage.

The zoo notes on their website that all the main pathways are now open at the zoo. I didn't see any news listing any exhibits or fences at the zoo destroyed, but that doesn't mean there necessarily wasn't. Hoping there wasn't any damage or any exhibits were compromised. My neighborhood had many fences destroyed from downed trees, and note that the zoo is in one of the oldest parts of town with tons of old trees on the grounds. If I get a chance to visit this weekend, I will report back if there was noticeable damage done that is visible.
 
Piece of March 2024 News Worth Mentioning:

On March 31st, it was announced that the zoo transferred 3 clutches of Stiphra jumping sticks to the Saint Louis Zoo in Missouri.

Saint Louis Zoo

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On August 9th, the zoo announced they rescued a (0.1) Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep and was recently transferred to the Denver Zoo in Colorado.

Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium
 
Here are a few updates from my visit yesterday (August 10, 2024).

Desert Dome
  • The blacksmith lapwing has been replaced by a pair of spotted thick-knee (Burhinus capensis).
  • There are now unsigned Mozambique girdled lizards (Smaug mossambicus) in the mixed species girdled lizard terrarium.
  • Mottled rock rattlesnake (Crotalus lepidus lepidus) has replaced the Great Basin rattlesnake.
Kingdoms of the Night
  • Spiny-headed tree frog (Triprion spinosus) has replaced the Mexican leaf frogs.
Lied Jungle
  • Black-headed spider monkey (Ateles fusciceps rufiventris) have replaced the white-handed gibbons on their island. The gibbons are still signed in the Asian small-clawed otter exhibit, but I didn’t see them in there. I think they have been signed in the otter exhibit for a while, but I have yet to actually see them using that space.
  • Black-handed spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi) are signed in the former black-headed spider monkey exhibit.
 
California Sea Lion Fluke returned to Omaha on 07/21/2024 from Turtle Back Zoo. He has born at Omaha, and moved to Turtle Back 08/27/2023, less than 1 year before transfer back to Omaha.

According to the most recent MMIR (08/06/2024), Omaha has 3.2 California Sea Lions and 2.0 Harbor Seals.

California Sea Lions:
1.0 Chino (b ~07/15/2004)
0.1 Nova (b 06/05/2016)
1.0 Raiden (b 06/17/2017)
0.1 {no name on MMIR} (b 10/1/2017)
1.0 Fluke (b 06/12/2019)

Harbor Seals:
1.0 Milo (b 05/30/2018)
1.0 Monty (b 08/04/2018)
 
Hoping to plan a trip to Omaha in fall, hopefully October but possibly later. I'm mostly interested in the buildings which won't be much of an issue but I did really want to ask about the Grasslands exhibit and Sable Antelope in specific -- does this exhibit close at a specific time of year and at what temperatures (40 F? more? less?) do species start being taken off display?

Also for the rotational primates (both rare gibbons, and the macaques) are these rotated over the course of a day where checking more than once would be helpful?
 
JVM said:
Hoping to plan a trip to Omaha in fall, hopefully October but possibly later. I'm mostly interested in the buildings which won't be much of an issue but I did really want to ask about the Grasslands exhibit and Sable Antelope in specific -- does this exhibit close at a specific time of year and at what temperatures (40 F? more? less?) do species start being taken off display?

Also for the rotational primates (both rare gibbons, and the macaques) are these rotated over the course of a day where checking more than once would be helpful?
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It should be open in October, possibly November I visited in march and they were out. I can not help with the primates, lied jungle was closed when I visited.
 
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JVM said:
Also for the rotational primates (both rare gibbons, and the macaques) are these rotated over the course of a day where checking more than once would be helpful?
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On my visit in August, I checked Gorilla Valley twice (first thing in the morning and a couple hours before closing), and the gibbons were on display both times. This makes me think they typically only have one primate group on display in that exhibit each day, but I don't know if that is always the case. That exhibit is also outdoors, so if the weather is cooler, there might not be anything on display. The exhibit should rotate between Geoffroy's spider monkeys, Angolan colobus, and the agile and buff-cheeked gibbons (which are displayed together). The macaques have been gone for a few years.
 
DesertTortoise said:
On my visit in August, I checked Gorilla Valley twice (first thing in the morning and a couple hours before closing), and the gibbons were on display both times. This makes me think they typically only have one primate group on display in that exhibit each day, but I don't know if that is always the case. That exhibit is also outdoors, so if the weather is cooler, there might not be anything on display. The exhibit should rotate between Geoffroy's spider monkeys, Angolan colobus, and the agile and buff-cheeked gibbons (which are displayed together). The macaques have been gone for a few years.
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Thank you. I expected as such with the macaques but it seemed every time it was reported they were gone, someone would chime in and say they'd seen them recently. I did not know the gibbons were able to be seen at once though, that's very welcome news for me.

From my understanding, tropical primates are usually kept inside around the 50 F line so I can keep that in mind.. Shame there's no indoor options for these species though.
 
JVM said:
Hoping to plan a trip to Omaha in fall, hopefully October but possibly later. I'm mostly interested in the buildings which won't be much of an issue but I did really want to ask about the Grasslands exhibit and Sable Antelope in specific -- does this exhibit close at a specific time of year and at what temperatures (40 F? more? less?) do species start being taken off display?

Also for the rotational primates (both rare gibbons, and the macaques) are these rotated over the course of a day where checking more than once would be helpful?
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You may be surprised to find all animals outside during the winter months as I have gone mid-December and caught almost all the animals out and about at various times over the years. I’ve even seen some gorillas playing in snow!

I’ve talked with a primate keeper about that rotational exhibit and they let the animals decide if they are outdoors so it can really be hit or miss what you see. She said the primates don’t hold back in showing if they want to be inside or outside. That would be an interesting thing to see behind the scenes.
 
MGolka said:
You may be surprised to find all animals outside during the winter months as I have gone mid-December and caught almost all the animals out and about at various times over the years. I’ve even seen some gorillas playing in snow!
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I was told the same thing nearly two years ago and I didn't see a single non cold adapted animal outdoors in early November...
 
Some minor updates:

White Cheeked Turcacos have replaced the violet turacos

The geoffroys spider monkeys have been moved indoors to the black faced spider monkey exhibit, and the black faced spider monkeys have been moved to the white cheeked gibbon island. Apparently the gibbons are in the small clawed Otter exhibit now but they haven't been out in a few days from what I've seen
 
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