Friday, September 01, 2017

Summer Vacation Redux #8: Omaha: Henry Doorly Zoo, part 4.2 of 11


But wait, there's more.  Underneath these desert biomes is an intricately designed subterranean world of faux caves with all the geological features of caverns and lots of animals from bats, to blind cave fish to insects to reptiles to amphibians who call such places home. This area was amazing and wonderful.  Because my camera was not able to capture it, I am using a photo found on the Internet. 
This eventually opens up into spaces that mimic nocturnal worlds, and here's were the shine starts to leave the gem.  Even nocturnal worlds have natural light.  They have fresh air.  Underground, these habitats fail to include live flora, and they feel confining in a way that maintaining say a Philippine Crocodile in an external habitat doesn't.  
Eventually, you arrive at a huge underground Bayou exhibit with a maze of wooden boardwalks to traverse that lead you around a series of fake islands and copious pools of water where a variety of animals reside.  Animals as diverse as Nutria and American Alligators, American Beavers and Bullfrogs live, all shrouded in darkness and fake flora.  As much as I loved this zoo, and as amazing as the concept for this structure is--I totally HATED it.  It failed on so many levels and most importantly the quality of life provided to the animals.  Because my camera was not able to capture it, I am using another photo found on the Internet.  And this is a very good proximation of dark and dank environment.  The animals live in a cold, dark, concrete world.  In a nutshell: Cave-GOOD, Bayou-BAD.

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