Made a quick loop around the zoo today taking in the beautiful weather here (as did a ton of folks, zoo was quite busy) and have a few updates.
Went into the Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Pavilion for the first time since the building closed in March of 2020 and all but one of the large terrariums had animals in them, and 6 of the 12 terrariums on the north wall were occupied. The wetland exhibits in the center were mostly occupied save for one of the four sections. However, there were not any small terrariums that were spaced throughout the room like there used to. If you are curious in the species that were signed and on exhibit, go to the
Omaha's Zoo Species List compiled by
@birdsandbats
A couple of other updates:
In the Lied Jungle, the Pygmy Hippo exhibit looks to be getting its water filtration system updated as well.
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In the Desert Dome, the Cape Cobra exhibit has been split in two and one of the halves now holds a Zebra Spitting Cobra. The touch ups on the Dwarf Mongoose exhibit has been completed and there are now sand dig pits along the upper shelf of the exhibit.
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The Central Canyon area pond also looks much cleaner with the new filtration installed.
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At the end of the Africa/Australia reptile cave, a second Perentie has been added so hopefully this results in some chance of breeding this species!
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A rather interesting development near the end of the Desert Dome is that the old Swift Fox exhibit has been repurposed into an additional Black & Rufous Elephant Shrew exhibit. There weren't any elephant shrews on exhibit so this may be pretty recent and haven't introduced them to this space yet.
Down in Kingdoms of the Night, there has been some additional "land" area built inside of the Spectacled Caiman exhibit. About a third of this habitat is now "land" in the sense that this is a platform raised above the water level.
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Over in Asian Highlands, the new Indian Rhino/Pere David's Deer viewing area has been opened and offers some super close viewing of the animals in the habitat.
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The north part of the zoo is still closed at the moment but you can see the new Carousel Building being constructed, not sure how much of the little pond with the seaplane has been impacted as the new location is in about that area.
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An update on the two elephant calves, they were both outside enjoying the nice weather with Eugenia happily running around and Sonny was trying to pick up a log that is about his size.
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And finally, the biggest news is that the former Cat Complex demolition has been rapid in the last month. Here are some photos of the remains. It's pretty shocking to see a building I had been visiting for the better part of 30 years reduced to rubble, but excited for what's to come here. There has not been a formal announcement of what was to be here, except the most recent master plan (which has been stated as completed) showed this area as an Equitorial Africa section.
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And with that, those were my major observations from today's visit!
