Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium News 2022
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In my effort to continually track down decades old info on the Lied Jungle, I came across this article that I found really interesting regarding the Egyptian Fruit Bat population that lives in the building.
The University of Nebraska is helping the zoo determine how many Egyptian Fruit Bats they actually have, and in this article the researcher takes an estimate that he believes there to be around 750 inside the Lied Jungle. Now, note they are still working on this, but something to keep in mind when thinking about the total number of animals that is reported in the zoo is usually around 34k +/-. Combining this with the Desert Dome, one would have to believe the zoo has almost 2-3k bats alone.
NRT counting bats at zoo | National Science Foundation National Research Traineeship (NRT) Program | Nebraska
The University of Nebraska is helping the zoo determine how many Egyptian Fruit Bats they actually have, and in this article the researcher takes an estimate that he believes there to be around 750 inside the Lied Jungle. Now, note they are still working on this, but something to keep in mind when thinking about the total number of animals that is reported in the zoo is usually around 34k +/-. Combining this with the Desert Dome, one would have to believe the zoo has almost 2-3k bats alone.
NRT counting bats at zoo | National Science Foundation National Research Traineeship (NRT) Program | Nebraska
If you visited the Lied Jungle you would understand. It's a giant building with hundreds of free roaming bats.
Few updates from my visit yesterday 
A red panda lives in the former Angolan colobus exhibit in the Gorilla Valley
There is a black and rufous elephant shrew at very end of the Desert Dome (near the turkey vultures)
An agile gibbon now lives with Francois langurs and Malayan tapir
A red panda lives in the former Angolan colobus exhibit in the Gorilla Valley
There is a black and rufous elephant shrew at very end of the Desert Dome (near the turkey vultures)
An agile gibbon now lives with Francois langurs and Malayan tapir
Replacing the Mueller's?
Oh yeah, sorry
I would say there is zero chance it is open this weekend since it hasn't been open since March of 2020. Zoo won't say why publicly why it is still closed. I will be at the zoo on Friday and can confirm this, but I wouldn't hold my breath for it to be open. I did notice on their website that they have made the closing time of the Lied Jungle to 4 pm where it has been at 3 pm for the last two years, so that's nice.
I can confirm it's closed
Perhaps the lower floor of the Lied Jungle will reopen when that renovation is done?
I did start thinking about this as they continue to go around the various larger exhibits doing refurbishments and it does make a lot of sense that they would keep the floor closed to do this, particularly in this area. If they just decide to renovate the remaining two "island" exhibits (both South America ones) it may be until the fall that these would be completed. Seems these refurbs take a month to do.
I did seen some construction on the lower floor of the Lied Jungle even when I visited back in summer. I would assume that the lower floor originally was closed for Covid, and then when they reopened everything else they just decided to keep that area closed while they were doing the renovations. Who knows how much that have already completed.
I thought this might be of interest to some members. The video below is a behind-the-scenes tour of the zoo's aquarium and other parts with the curator of aquatics. It was filmed in November 2021 but only released a few days ago. Here are some of the really interesting, rather random, bits and pieces:
- one of their oldest reef tanks was established in 1995 and remains in existence to this day.
- the Japanese Spider Crabs are bought from Japanese meat markets live and shipped over to the States. The supplier looks for ones with all their limbs.
- the Sulawesi Beach exhibit was inspired by a trip the curator took in 2000 to Sulawesi. A lot of the fish in this tank have been living there for 10 to 15 years. All the plants are real in this exhibit as well and the wave is created from a side holding tank.
- the unique West African Sea Nettles were originally collected from South Africa and Namibia. The zoo have now bred multiple generations of them. The curator proudly maintains them as an Omaha speciality.
- in Lied Jungle, the Mekong Catfish arrived at the zoo via a confiscation through the government. They have eight Arapaima including a 30-year-old individual. There is also a very elusive lungfish that lives with the freshwater rays.
I had no idea that there was an earlier aquarium at Omaha. What were the highlights of the pre-Scott aquarium?
Yes, the original aquarium opened in 1984 and pretty much all of the original tanks are still in the Scott Aquarium. These original tanks are from the coral reef tank that is now second from the end (right before the Amazon tank) to the now Dragon Eel tank. In the original aquarium, the eel tank, which originally held Green Moray, was the last tank before you exited the aquarium. I wouldn’t say there were many highlights, looks almost the same as today. Many of the species on display today in these tanks were on display then.
Technically, Omaha had an aquarium in the 1970s, but it "consisted of one-hundred-gallon free-standing tanks in the middle of the room that housed the Elgin Gates stuffed animal collection. The second aquarium (1984) was in the same space but had seven exhibits with a total of seventy thousand gallons." (Wirth, 2017). That excerpt is taken from the zoo's 156-page 'History Press' book.
It's great that you recall the 1984 second aquarium and I didn't realize (until I doubled-checked the history book after your post) that the 7 existing tanks were incorporated into the zoo's third aquarium. The 1.3 million gallon Scott Aquarium opened in 1995 at a cost of $16 million, then was renovated in 2012 to the tune of $7 million, plus a $4 million conference center was added. Even with approximately 30 exhibits, the Scott Aquarium could legitimately generate an extra admission fee as it's the largest aquarium inside a zoo in North America.
It's amazing at how things escalate in price. Point Defiance Zoo spent more than $50 million on its 2018 aquarium, and Kansas City Zoo is spending in the neighourhood of $75 million on its upcoming aquarium. Yikes!
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