Let's go to the Henry Doodle Zoo, Omaha, NE" Travelogue and Pictures"

Following article was originally published by www.daijiworld.com, "A well-known Coastal Karnataka web portal among mangloreans", later blogged by www,zoo-talk.com




Every time my parents say to me, “Let’s go to the zoo”, I get excited and say to myself, Wow! I am going to see… up close and personal of carnivores, I am going to visit all kinds of creatures from all around the world.

Once I enter the zoo, mixed feelings take over my excitement. I wonder about the plight of the captivated animals. I feel sorry for those tigers, lions, panthers lying around. I wonder how they must be feeling behind those fences. Are they happy because they never have to hunt food? Are they happy not having to look for water? I also wonder about the animals like the deer, zebra, and antelopes. Are they happy with limited, restricted natural habitat? Are they happy because they don’t have to be the prey of tigers, lions or are they bored just sitting around and not knowing how the real life scenario would be in a thick vast African jungle or in Asia?

This time, I was visiting one of the largest zoos of the world, Henry Doorly Zoo, Omaha, NE. Once I was inside the zoo, I had same old questions inside my mind, but slowly and steadily, I changed my mind about the facilities of this particular zoo.
The most interesting creatures of all that I saw were the Egyptian geese. First I thought that they had only one leg. I wrote to the bird expert, Bob Lastovika, who works at the Zoo; he replied to me that he gets lots of questions about Egyptian geese's legs. Actually they do have two legs. Depending on temperature of the surrounding, they have one tucked up. Later I found out that many birds stand on one leg while resting or roosting. Birds withdraw one leg into their warmth of the belly feathers to conserve heat loss. The joints in the legs are such that they are able to lock in without loosing balance while resting on one leg. I saw orangutans (Henry Doodle is famous for orangutans) chasing each other, eating and sleeping. A gorilla picking nose and eating it (may be in boredom).
I saw strikingly beautiful scarlet macaws. I couldn’t believe how big they were! I felt sad to learn they are one of the endangered species, since people capture them to keep them as their pets.
It was the perfect sight that I got see of an Indo-Chinese tiger and her cubs who were littered. Mr. Lastovika mentioned to me in his email that the mother cat was brought from Malaysia about year and a half ago. She is seven years old and she had littered for the second time.
I was pretty surprised to see the peacocks strolling around without any fear around, making themselves very much at home. I was lucky to see the stunning display of peacocks’ train of feathers. They never seem to be bothered by the visitors.
Henry Doorly Zoo is one of the most unusual zoos I have been in North America. I got a feeling of visiting different continents of the world, since the zoo contained indoor rainforest, largest indoor desert dome, pathway under shark tunnel, cat complex that . Also I enjoyed watching “Volcanoes of the deep sea and The mystery of the Nile” at their IMAX Theater.
The zoo is designed very well with many many features Animals were displayed lot more realistic environment and seem much more relaxed in comparison to many other zoo animals. I’m sure, no creature would be happy in any zoos around the world, but I was very happy to see the impressive facilities at the Henry Doorly Zoo, Omaha, NE.