Thursday, August 31, 2017

Summer Vacation Redux #8: Omaha: Henry Doorly Zoo, part 6 of 11

After leaving the Hubbard Gorilla Valley complex at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, I became cognizant of the time and the fact that my traveling companion was beginning to flag.  So we made a plan to go over to the zoo's little train feature and ride it out to the far end of the zoo where their larger African animals were.  I imaged the my friend Rod would appreciate pics of and from the train, too.  Then we could make our way back to the entrance picking up other areas as we went.  It seemed to make sense at the time.  But here's how it went down.  The walk to the train was short enough and we joined the line awaiting the next train.  It took about 10 minutes to arrive, and then another 10 to unload and load, at which point we ended up still in line, but only about 10 people from the beginning for the next train.  25 minutes later, it arrived and was unloaded and loaded in about 5 minutes this time.  Once it was loaded the intercom announced that the train was being pulled out of service due to a technical problem!  WTF?  So our time-saver ended up using up about an hour of our time...  However, the standing and waiting had also been a good break for my friend. 


We consulted the map and decided to hoof it to the far and maintain our earlier "work our way back to the front gate" strategy.  I realized that we would probably not get to the large Asian cats (Tigers and Leopards) or the separate Penguin facility, the Farm area with international farm animals was out, and because viewing the One-horned Asian Rhinoceros was only possible from the train... ta ta to that, too.  All very disappointing, and yet in the context of everything we'd already seen it would be hard to claim to sour grapes!



 The Red Ruffed Lemur, Varecia rubra.


The Ring-tailed Lemur, Lemur catta, which is the most commonly held mammal in North American Zoos. 

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