Today, we got into the car and headed east to Omaha once again. This time it was the Doorly Zoo. This zoo is supposedly rated even better than the San Diego Zoo. I also visited the SD Zoo, and that was a tough act to follow.
Since my son started coming to these Nats trips we always looked for something a small kid would be interested in. Now it's become a tradition to hit the local zoo.
Getting there was no problem and we were soon standing in front of the price board trying to judge what we wanted to do and see. We opted for the big package except for the IMAX. It was a nice day and no real need to be sitting in a darkened theater again (we did hit the local theater days before to see Dunkirk).
There is a hug dome right inside the front entrance that drew our attention so we headed that way -
The dome was dedicated to plants and animals of the desert, and then as you went on, into an area where the creatures of the night were exhibited. Walking thru the doors you started in the Namib Desert. Lots of room for a few plants -
The whole place is a series of turns where something new is revealed with each turn. Here is where my problem with the idea started -
These were the first mammal you see. I was surprised at how little room the animals had. This little dear about about 10'X20'. Somehow with herbivores, you see them standing around eating the grass or hay not really doing much else. But in the very next exhibit was an enclosure (I didn't image it) was an ocelot. Or what was supposed to be an ocelot - I never saw it. It's enclosure was a ledge! That's it. Prolly no more than 5 or 6' wide and about 20' long. Now I'm sure it's range in the wild is a lot more and 6'X20'. And that just continued. In my non zoological view, millions of dollars was spent on how it looks and it appeared that no 10¢ was giving to the animals.
Then around one turn was a huge enclosure made to look like the opening of a mine, complete with tools and one of those carts that ride on rails. It had to be 20' long, 10' wide, but about 30' tall! What was in it? Seven rattlesnakes! So a predatory mammal which prolly has the range of many miles, had a ledge, and 7 rattlesnakes who basically stayed in one spot had this giant enclosure...
It got me mad. Mad to the point where I was ready to leave.In the end I basically just walked the path thru the rest of the desert, and did the same with the Creatures of the Night exhibit. No way was this better than the San Diego Zoo.
Getting out and stopping for a drink calmed me down. Then After my wife and son walked thru the aquarium building - I wasn't interested... my wife wanted to go see the butterfly exhibit. Ok, it can't be any worse than the Desert. It was better. I was there mostly to see the plants and I wasn't disappointed with the plants nor the butterflys -
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| Very nice bromeliads |
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| This moth was in the hatching area. Cool. |
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| Reflections were impossible to work around |
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| Beautiful Nepenthes |
Next to get a better view of what to see next, we jumped on the "Skyfari", a skilift type ride that took us to the far side of the zoo. Here were a few images from the ride -
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| Senses Garden |
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| A pair of cheetah |
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| Bongo |
They even had a sculpture of a Columbian Mammoth -
Walking thru the Africa section, there were proper enclosures for the rest of the visit, and before long it was the end of the day and time to head back to the hotel.
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