Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo - Lied Jungle

July 2008. Malayan tapirs on the bottom, Francois' langurs on the top. Mixed-species exhibit in the world's largest indoor rainforest.

Wow, that looks like a great exhibit!

"Looks like" is the key. This may be one of the most-criticized exhibits in the Lied Jungle. The photo shows nearly 1/3 of the entire land area available to the tapirs (they are restricted to the low beach area)! Their night quarters are tiny windowless cubicles located below the beach. Yes, there is a nice-sized pool with underwater viewing, but tapirs are primarily terrestrial and in this exhibit are confined to a piece of land no bigger than a public school classroom.

Oh, and by the way Snowleopard's description is incorrect (although not surprising because Omaha always claims it is)--this is not the world's largest indoor rainforest--both Burgers' Bush in Arnhem and the Masoala Forest in Zurich are larger.

Omaha has always maintained that its Lied Jungle building is the world's largest, but I'm sure that Burgers' Bush and Zurich's Masoala Forest are similar in size if not perhaps a little larger. I enjoyed the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, but have often criticized the malayan tapir exhibit. The pool and underwater viewing is amazing, but the land area is definitely disappointing.

How large is this "world's largest indoor rainforest"??

Lied Jungle stats:

covers 1.5 acres
80 feet tall
123,000 sq ft of floor space
61,000 sq ft is planted space
35,000 sq ft is "display management area" or animal enclosures
11,000 sq ft is education space

Burgers Bush is bigger with 13.000 square meters and up to 20 meters high, i don't know who many acres or feet that is.

13000 sq meters is about 3.2 acres and 20 meters is about 65 feet high.