Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo New African savanna mega-exhibit announced for Omaha Zoo

This is a nice looking plan. I like the elephant pool going into their current lake. With $70 million dollars, I can see this going pretty far. There's several things in this that haven't been tried before, such as the rhino and cheetah exhibits being incorporated into a single view. I think the rhino connects with the hoofstock habitat too, but doesn't Omaha have Black rhinos right now?

New giraffe house is good, their penguin and giraffe mix seemed really odd. I hope the addax and wattled cranes get incorporated somehow, with the addax probably not needing to be in the main savanna habitat.
 
Lots of design influences concepts from Trails at Birmingham and Giants at Dallas is this a CLR design?

Is Omaha a multi Bull facility?

Rhino/Cheetah on the flex habitat is something Birmingham has thrown around as a future goal. Right now they are working on mixing the Bull Elephant herd with the Rhino/Hoofstock/Giraffe.
 
Looks really nice design-wise. Pretty large area to cover (28+ acres) with such a mix of exhibits. I like how the lions have two exhibits and dogs have a large area.
 
The exhibit looks great. The elephant area lookd to be 4+ acres. There barn seems to be huge. Glad to see the zoo having lots of hoofstock incorperated. It seems to have been influenced by the dallas zoo mainly. This zoo will have a great afrixan animal collection between this complex, lied jungle and the desert dome.
 
The plans look great and visitors will flock to this superb zoo in record numbers as they've done for the past 20 years. There are a select group of zoos that are already outstanding and yet there is still massive construction projects that are literally tens of millions of dollars that make those same zoos even better. Establishments like San Diego, Saint Louis, Omaha and Columbus are already spectacular and the money being poured into new exhibits is astonishing. Often much smaller zoos struggle to raise a measly million dollars for improvements and that sort of cash would scarcely cover the cost of a new sidewalk at a major zoo.
 
Glad to see the lions leave the Cat Complex. Now let's get the rest of the cats out of there and tear that place down. The map of this new exhibit looks great.
 
Looks really nice and awesome cant wait for it

Its gonna make the zoo #1 no matter what And it maybe the best savannah exhibit i have seen My zoo the Bronx has something kinda like it but without the white rhinos (Zoo Center) and Elephants (We only have Asian Elephants)I think the Master Plan for the Henry Doorly Zoo is amazing with an African Savannah exhibit and after that a possible Asian exhibit
 
Sable antelopes are fairly rare, so I definitely like that idea. Also like that the wild dogs get so much room.

Only concern of mine: maybe I misinterpreted the map, but the cheetah and rhino enclosures appear to be much smaller than the others. Maybe the terracing makes it look smaller than it actually is?
 
fkalltheway said:
Here's an up-to-date article about the African Grasslands project:
Everything you need to know about the Omaha zoo's $73 million project - Omaha.com: Living

This interactive map is especially helpful for understanding the area, and it includes species lists and opening dates.
http://dataomaha.com/media/mm/zoomap.html

Things that have changed:
--No wild dogs
--Cheetahs moved to the other side of the lagoon
--Bongo added
--Rhino now mixed with giraffe and others
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting! I've looked over the latest plans and the project has the potential to be absolutely outstanding. Omaha never does things in small portions and yet this mega-project has to be a strong candidate for one of the largest undertakings by any zoo in history. To take 28 acres and renovate the entire swath of land is incredible and most zoos around the world are not even 28 acres in size to begin with.

Bringing back elephants to the zoo will allow for a major boost in attendance; the African Lodge that seats 300 people is yet another huge zoo restaurant; the 29,000 sq. ft. elephant building will be the largest of its kind in North America; and the two enormous yards across from each other will be terrific. Elephants, impala and zebras on one side with giraffes, rhinos, impala and various birds across the walkway. I particularly like what has been done with Pachyderm Hill, as in the past few years many visitors have skipped that section as it is a long uphill trek. Lions, cheetahs, tortoises, bongos, sable antelopes, an overnight campground, visitor plaza, etc., will all encourage visitors to either walk or take the fairly new Skyfari Landing to the top.

Looking at last year's map of the zoo it seems that many of the enclosures that are being bulldozed due to the new development won't mean a loss of species. However, does anyone know what will happen to the Visayan warty pigs, addax and Indian rhinos? By spring of 2016 it might well be a struggle to see the entire zoo in the 8 hours that they are open, as many zoo nerds can spend countless hours just between the Lied Jungle, Desert Dome, Kingdoms of the Night, Butterfly & Insect Pavilion and Scott Aquarium. That is before visitors tackle Expedition Madagascar, the 4-acre walk-through aviary, the vast Cat Complex or the new African project. Lastly, at a summer rate of $17 the zoo is ridiculously inexpensive and arguably should be doubling their admission costs with this new development. I hope that prices stay as cheap as they are but as one of the world's truly great zoos it seems to me that $17 is an incredible deal.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top