Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium News 2023

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Per the zoo’s Twitter, the Lied Jungle is closed while some roof maintenance is going on. They’ve been doing some maintenance up there for a month or so, but hadn’t closed the building until now.
 
Zoofan15 said:
Zoo welcome first Mexican giant horned lizard offspring:

Omaha's zoo welcomes first Mexican giant horned lizard offspring

The zoo is one of two accredited institutions by The Association of Zoos and Aquariums, behind the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens, to breed the species.

Six of the Mexican giant horned lizards are currently being raised at Omaha's zoo — a species they said is endemic to southern Mexico's Pacific Coast.
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YouTube video about the breeding :

 
I'm glad they finally announced one the worst-kept secrets over the last couple of months. I learned about this early last year and was super excited for them to announce it. More on the exhibit and a couple other renderings here:

Forest For Us – Omaha Zoo Foundation

From what I was told a while ago, the outdoor exhibit that exists today above the waterfall next to the elevator building will be extended down to encompass the entire waterfall. So the nearly 30-foot-tall exhibit will turn into almost a 60-foot-tall enclosure from the bottom to the top. This will be second renovation the original Orangutan building has gone through and it looks to be fantastic when finished. The second iteration (how the exhibit has been for the last two decades) always seemed like a footnote to Gorilla Valley and the Elevator Building, so I'm glad they are finally giving proper attention to this area.

I'm super excited for how this is going to turn out and can't wait for May 2024!
 
Zoofan15 said:
Orangutan Forest - Opening May 2024

Omaha zoo unveils next big project: $21 million Hubbard Orangutan Forest
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This indeed looks like a potentially fantastic development. I was expecting something on the scale of the renovations Gorilla Valley received a few years ago, but this is essentially a brand new exhibit. Omaha hasn't had a single misstep in recent memory and I'm confident they will deliver once again. With that said, I have two observations based on what's been released so far.

1. I haven't seen any mention of the siamangs, but one of the renderings does show a François' langur indicating they will be staying.
2. While the area has been demolished, it appears the new Orangutan Forest will not be taking up the land where the old cat complex was located. Instead it looks to be expanding out to the opposite direction, toward what was previous a back-of-house area.
 
Orangutan Forest is great news, but a genuine surprise. I've always enjoyed seeing the orangutans and gibbons up high in their mesh-draped enclosures, admiring the height that the apes could reach that exceeds what most other zoos provide. The current orangutan complex is already a contender for being one of the best in North America, with its outdoor climbing opportunities and 32-foot high indoor space. It appears that Omaha is taking an excellent, functional exhibit and turning it into an immersive environment with Indonesian theming. This zoo is so impressive that, in the last dozen years, it has continually built new, world-class exhibits (African Grasslands, Asian Highlands, Children's Adventure Trails, Sea Lion Shores), while also renovating existing complexes (aquarium, gorillas, orangutans, massive walk-through aviary).
 
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Another space will let orangutans interact with their human visitors through technology. Padilla said that plan is still in the works, but could incorporate some sort of tablet-based tech to showcase the animals’ intelligence.
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I found this fragment especially exciting. Has anything like this been attempted before?

I'm hoping to visit Omaha within the next year or two, and this almost makes me want to postpone the possibility. I've not had the pleasure to see a naturalistic orangutan enclosure yet.
 
JVM said:
I found this fragment especially exciting. Has anything like this been attempted before?

I'm hoping to visit Omaha within the next year or two, and this almost makes me want to postpone the possibility. I've not had the pleasure to see a naturalistic orangutan enclosure yet.
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There are a couple other contenders for naturalistic orangutan exhibits - Woodland Park, Fresno's upcoming Kingdoms of Asia redux, and a couple others I can't list at the moment off the top of my head. Weirdly enough Philadelphia's got a pretty naturalistic habitat. I can't fault the design of the indoor space and the surrounding walls given the old World of Primates tragedy (even though the value-engineering fairy has clearly left its mark), but any orangutan exhibit that allows access to mature trees and still has them surviving after all these years is doing something right.
 
StoppableSan said:
There are a couple other contenders for naturalistic orangutan exhibits - Woodland Park, Fresno's upcoming Kingdoms of Asia redux, and a couple others I can't list at the moment off the top of my head. Weirdly enough Philadelphia's got a pretty naturalistic habitat. I can't fault the design of the indoor space and the surrounding walls given the old World of Primates tragedy (even though the value-engineering fairy has clearly left its mark), but any orangutan exhibit that allows access to mature trees and still has them surviving after all these years is doing something right.
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Thank you. I haven't had the pleasure to see any of those but Fresno's Kingdoms of Asia does look pretty great though. Philadelphia is on my list.
 
StoppableSan said:
There are a couple other contenders for naturalistic orangutan exhibits - Woodland Park, Fresno's upcoming Kingdoms of Asia redux, and a couple others I can't list at the moment off the top of my head. Weirdly enough Philadelphia's got a pretty naturalistic habitat. I can't fault the design of the indoor space and the surrounding walls given the old World of Primates tragedy (even though the value-engineering fairy has clearly left its mark), but any orangutan exhibit that allows access to mature trees and still has them surviving after all these years is doing something right.
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I'd disagree with your take on Philly's Orangutan exhibit, and found it to be one of the weakest exhibits in the zoo on my visit. Not only does Philly exhibit terrestrial orangutans, but climbing access is extremely limited and mostly close to the ground. A good exhibit for orangutans and/or gibbons should include the possibility to traverse the entire exhibit from above the ground (even if they may choose not to), as that is the naturalistic behaviors of these brachiating Apes. Seeing white-handed gibbons locomoting on the ground and having very minimal climbing opportunities was definitely not something I wanted to see in a zoo.

Another good, naturalistic Orangutan exhibit is the exhibit at Saint Louis Zoo. While not exactly "naturalistic" from an aesthetics perspective, National Zoo and Indianapolis Zoo also have solid exhibits that encourage natural, arboreal behaviors. I'm also a big fan of the exhibit at Cleveland Zoo- the only place I've ever seen orangutans off the ground. Any exhibit that succeeds in getting orangutans off the ground, in my opinion, is an exhibit deserving praise, and on my Cleveland visit four of the five orangutans were off the ground, certainly making this an impressive display.
 
Neil chace said:
I'd disagree with your take on Philly's Orangutan exhibit, and found it to be one of the weakest exhibits in the zoo on my visit. Not only does Philly exhibit terrestrial orangutans, but climbing access is extremely limited and mostly close to the ground. A good exhibit for orangutans and/or gibbons should include the possibility to traverse the entire exhibit from above the ground (even if they may choose not to), as that is the naturalistic behaviors of these brachiating Apes. Seeing white-handed gibbons locomoting on the ground and having very minimal climbing opportunities was definitely not something I wanted to see in a zoo.

Another good, naturalistic Orangutan exhibit is the exhibit at Saint Louis Zoo. While not exactly "naturalistic" from an aesthetics perspective, National Zoo and Indianapolis Zoo also have solid exhibits that encourage natural, arboreal behaviors. I'm also a big fan of the exhibit at Cleveland Zoo- the only place I've ever seen orangutans off the ground. Any exhibit that succeeds in getting orangutans off the ground, in my opinion, is an exhibit deserving praise, and on my Cleveland visit four of the five orangutans were off the ground, certainly making this an impressive display.
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I do think the climbing opportunities other than the mature sycamore trees are lacking, but said sycamore trees (along with various bushes within the orangutan exhibit) knock this space up quite a few pegs for me personally.
 
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