Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo - Lied Jungle

July 2008. Francois' langur and malayan tapir enclosure. This has been criticized in the past for the lack of space given to the tapirs, and I agree wholeheartedly. They have a huge pool but not much in the way of land area. The beach there is all they have, as they cannot access the upper layer.

I wonder why the exhibit was designed like this and not allow the tapirs to have the whole access to the top. I don't think that the tapirs could actually hurt the langurs, or maybe the zoo doesn't want the plants in the top exhibit to be destroyed.

I think that the tapirs would trample all of the vegetation, but I agree with the size issue. Perhaps it could be renovated to hold otters (but there are already 2 different species in the building) or extra land added for the tapirs.

Tapirs mostly use the land anyway for sleeping and eating. They spend a lot of there time in the water. One thing I know from observing the tapirs at the Cleveland Zoo is that when tapirs are not frolicking in the water they are sleeping on land or waiting by the door to go in and eat. They don't really use there land areas for much else. By this picture it looks like they have an awesome large pool.

Actually,if the tapirs really tried,they probably could get up there?

@BlackRhino: Objection! Same parameters in regard to apt room as in pygmy hippos. The housing here is inadequate-and the critique justified.

Sun Wukong is right. Now I have worked with Tapirs and not all tapirs spend most of their time in the water. The water is an important part of their environment and behaviour, but land is just as necessary.

I've never been to Omaha, but Im pretty sure there is more to this exhibit than what is in the photograph...if its not more land, its at least more water.

This is a terrible exhibit for malayan tapirs, as the land space is pitiful and shameful for such large animals. There is a lot more water than what can be seen in this photo, but for land the tapirs only have a narrow strip of beachfront property.

I am so confused as to why Omaha is such a great zoo if the best exhibit there has some major flaws. The tapir exhibit and pygmy hippo exhibits are too small according to everyone thats been there. The only good exhibits in Lied Jungle are the monkeys who have free range. Me personally would never rate this as a top 10 zoo if I went by what everyone said.

@BlackRhino: Allen and Jon, who as you know are the co-authors of "America's Best Zoos" (arguably the most informative zoo book in North America) rank Omaha as a #2 or #3 zoo on the continent. That alone speaks volumes, even though they both understand that there are flaws in some of the exhibits. The Lied Jungle has its poor parts, but between that, Desert Dome and especially Kingdoms of the Night there are 3 huge construction projects that will one day knock your socks off!