Omaha must surely have the largest Elephant House and the largest Giraffe House in all of North America. Those huge buildings are certainly needed, as the zoo has impressive herds of elephants and giraffes, plus winters are harsh in Nebraska.
This is of course not the "beautiest" but at least a functional Indoor Elephant Exhibit. And it is without a doubt not the most expensive. However, the responsible persons of Henry Doorly Zoo did a good job and I really wonder, WHY Toronto Zoo isn't able/wasn't willing to copy that thing for their zoo but have phased out elephants instead.
@snowleopard I fell like Columbus' elephant house might be slightly larger. Do you have numbers for either of these?
@birdsandbats Columbus's building as a whole is 34,700 sq ft, this is just less than 30,000 - but whose to say how much space is dedicated to the animals? I wouldn't be surprised if Omaha had more space for its elephants, since a decent chunk for the one in Columbus is for their rhino.
Replying to myself, before anyone says it, who's*. This is why you don't reply to comments when you just wake up. To add to this, back to giraffes, I found Omaha’s have access to 7,000 sq ft of indoor space. Animal space, not the rest of the building. It would appear Columbus may also win in this category, and I'm sure the Wilds does too. Sadly, neither has public viewing.
@StoppableSan I really don't like the fact that people that exaggerate zoos to be cruel win sometimes, because they've convinced a majority of the world that SeaWorld is a cruel prison for animals when it actually isn't. Also, is this the wrong place to bring it up?
