OMAHA'S HENRY DOORLY ZOO

HENRY DOORLY ZOO

If you ever get to Omaha, Nebraska, their number one attraction, in my opinion is the Henry Doorly Zoo and I-Max theater. We saw 3-D Under the Sea while we were here and it was awesome. The zoo is Nebraska's number 1 paid attraction with 25 million visitors over the past 40 years. The zoo is nationally renowned for it's leadership in animal conservation and research. http://www.omahazoo.com/

Established in 1894 as Riverside Park Zoo, it was renamed the Henry Doorly Zoo in 1963 when Margaret Hitchcock Doorly donated $750,000 (4.5 million in 2005 dollars) with the stipulation it be renamed after her late husband, Henry Doorly, chairman of World Publishing Company.



This is a picture of an owl butterfly in the newly constructed Butterfly house.








The penguins put on quite a show in the Scott Aquarium. I could sit and watch their antics for hours.

A very rare sea dragon in the aquarium.

Another exhibit is Kingdoms of the Night, the worlds largest nocturnal exhibit and indoor swamp.

The Desert Dome is the world's largest indoor desert as well as the largest geodesic dome in the world.

The zoo also has the Lied Jungle which is the world's largest indoor rain forest.



A gorilla in the Hubbard Gorilla Valley. There are dome like viewing areas where children can sit and adults can look in at the gorillas. The gorillas seem to get a kick out of suddenly throwing their body against the dome and scaring the children! Then they calmly walk away.

The zoo also has the largest cat complex in North America.

In Durham's Bear Canyon it was fun to watch this polar bear play from an overhead viewing area. He would swim to the left of the pool then roll over on his back. Using is front paw he would push himself using the metal supports on the partition. He did this over and over.

A few statistics on the Henry Doorly Zoo:

As of 2004 the zoo had 130 acres;

More than 17,000 animals and 962 species;

Birds: 276 species, 1626 specimens

Mammals: 184 species, 2025 specimens

Fish: 181 species, 7600 specimens

Reptiles: 176 species, 598 specimens

44 endangered species

7 threatened species.

There was a beautiful sunrise through their sliding glass doors in the kitchen the morning we left Omaha for Colorado, April 10.

I am finding out there are too many "Goodbyes" with our vagabond lifestyle. It is hard to leave good friends like Ed and Bonnie. We had such a wonderful week with them and will treasure their friendship in the years to come. They have given us many wonderful memories and we thank them again and again.

See you soon, wonderful friends but now it's time to move on...