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Echobeast

Snow leopard exhibit

Snow leopard exhibit
Echobeast, 3 Jul 2019
    • Arizona Docent
      Appears to be one of the best snow leopard exhibits in the United States. @Echobeast is this new?
      StoppableSan likes this.
    • Echobeast
      @Arizona Docent This is from phase 2 of Asian Highlands. Opened up in Spring of this year.
    • snowleopard
      One could make the case that for African Lions and Snow Leopards, Omaha has some of the best big cat exhibits in the nation. Add in the Amur Tiger and Cheetah exhibits, both looking fantastic, and suddenly the zoo has opened 4 brand-new big cat habitats in the past 3 years. Director Dennis Pate continues to revitalize a zoo that seems to gain steadily on San Diego every year...at what point does Omaha become recognized by zoo nerds as America's #1? The Scott Aquarium is getting revamped yet again, next year will see the debut of a $22 million California Sea Lion habitat, and then perhaps another couple of major projects could see Omaha as the 'top dog' in the nation.
    • Echobeast
      @snowleopard I think once the new sea lion exhibit is done there won’t be a single poor exhibit in the park. And they still want to bring polar bears back at some point. It’s going to be really hard to argue that Henry Doorly isn’t the top zoo in the nation in a year or two.
    • Arizona Docent
      Yes - four new big cat exhibits - but what about small cats? That is what it takes to get a certain ZooChatter to book a flight from Tucson to Omaha. ;)
    • lintworm
      Since I can't go to the US for now, I spent some time going through galleries of zoos I wasn't planning to visit. This enclosure looks pretty impressive on this picture, but according to their website it is 270 square meters. That means it is significantly smaller than the better Snow leopard enclosures in Central Europe (Karslruhe, Zurich, Dresden et al., which are 2-3 times larger), it is even far smaller than the enclosures in Cologne and Basel (those are >33% larger), which are definitely not great, but still quite good. It doesn't even make sense to compare it to Scandinavia (Nordens Ark, Kolmarden and Helsinki). This seems to be at a similar size as the sub-par Pairi Daiza enclosure. It seems that looks still go first at Omaha and animal welfare second seeing the immense cost spent at this development. It is not as if space or money were limiting factors here....
    • pachyderm pro
      @lintworm "It seems that looks still go first at Omaha and animal welfare second."

      I usually don't like bumping up old media discussions, but I can't help myself here because I could not disagree with this statement more. The animal welfare at Omaha is top notch and to them functionality is just as important as aesthetics, both of which the zoo has excelled in. This of course wasn't always the case when the Desert Dome and Lied Jungle initially opened, but I think it says something that the zoo has since gone back and fixed these mistakes. The wallaby and hyrax shelves are no more, several of more unsuitable residents have been moved out completely, and the tapir exhibits have seen expansions. It's not all perfect, no zoo ever is, as there are still some far too small exhibits in the Desert Dome and tapirs and pygmy hippos are still all indoors. Overall though, the zoo has absolutely recognized the mistakes it made with these exhibits in the past and has rectified many of them.

      That brings me to the newer exhibits. The amount of detail and care gone into every development under the current, soon-to-be-retired director has been nothing short of astonishing. The seal and sea lion exhibit previously mentioned above has since opened and features a wave machine and dedicated pupping beach and in general is just phenomenal. Flamingos are fully flighted and have access to the entirety of a 1.5 acre aviary. Elephants have four acres of outdoor yards and a 29,000 square foot barn. Giraffes, lions, tigers, cheetahs, sloth bears, various antelope, takin, great apes, antarctic penguins, and many others all have exhibits that could easily be considered some of the best of their kind in the United States and some worldwide. I cannot emphasize enough that in no way is Omaha prioritizing looks first and welfare second, not anymore.

      Now with that said, I will actually agree that I found this snow leopard exhibit to be a bit underwhelming. It's still pretty good, but it had the potential to be something much greater. It could have been double the size on the same footprint if they better utilized the hillside, but it's also worth noting there is additional off exhibit outdoor space behind the exhibit.
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  • Category:
    Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo
    Uploaded By:
    Echobeast
    Date:
    3 Jul 2019
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    Comment Count:
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