I had been reading about this Omaha, Nebraska zoo for over two years. It had a reputation for giving the one in San Diego a run for its money and for the most part it lived up to its rep. I had just gone to the zoo in San Diego nine months previous and am a huge fan of our own zoo (Colorado Springs) up on Cheyenne Mountain, so I reckoned myself a bit of a zoo connoisseur. First of all, this bad boy is big, so if you go get ready for a lot of walking, although there is a train, a tram and an overhead sky ride, but for my money to be really savored, a zoo needs to be walked.
Things I liked:
They have a night area. There's something sooooooooo cool about walking around in a place that perpetually dark. I'm not talking about dim, it is flat out dark in there. Obviously, this pavilion houses creatures that prefer the dark and if you're like me, you think bats. I LOVE BATS. I LOVE BATS. There I've said it. They had six species of bats, including (drum roll please) vampire bats. The little buggers were even lapping up blood. How cool is that!!! But my favorite was the giant fruit bats. These guys had wing spans of like four feet. Now that's a bat. Oh yeah, and Naked Mole Rats. Who doesn't like them?
Lots and lots of bears. What's not to like about a bear. Every time I see one I think of the folk song, 'Mama's Taking Us to the Zoo Tomorrow.' "Bears walking round with their woof, woof woofing." Polar Bears, Brown bears, Grizzly bears. Cool beans
Tigers. One tiger roared over and over again and paced around it's giant enclosure. Loud, impressive.
Lions. It must have been some sort of day care/school day because there were a ton of kids running around that day and one particularly, shall we say expressive young girl, insisted on shouting, "Wake up, wake up you." After a minute of this abuse, the lion opened one eye and fixed it on the girl as if to say, "Please come a little closer, darling, so I can show you what waking up really looks like." The little girl was appropriately cowed. And one mama lion had four baby lion cubs. All spotted and cute.
They had a Komodo Dragon. I love these guys. They look like they just want to bite you with their nasty bacteria infected mouths.
The Jungle River pavilion was extra cool. Can you say pigmy hippo? This little guy had his own river and looked like I feel when I'm on my first day of vacation in Florida. This place even had an albino Alligator. Huge, white, with a terrific overbite. We walked on rope bridges, along a winding river, and looked down on very cool monkeys from the tree canopies. It was even appropriately hot and sultry.
Bird Sanctuary - a giant enclosure, I'm talking massive. Pink birds, striped birds, huge birds, tiny birds, birds in the trees, floating on a river, flying from branch to branch, AND NOISY. It seemed only fair. This was their turf. They should be able to sound off as much as they want in their own home. If I didn't like it, I could leave.
Orangutans. Not much to say except one young guy just hung there with his legs spread as if to say, "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is my penis." I recognized something of myself in his demeanor. This area also enclosed one of the most beautiful silver-backed gorillas I had ever seen. Magnificent! He was just regal in his large run. a small gibbon braciated from branch to branch like it took no effort.
Of course there were giraffes and penguins, rafts of monkeys, even a butterfly pavilion. But I'm not going to go on much longer. You probably already got the picture. I had a the best time I think I've ever had in Nebraska.
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