Omaha - Zoo day

I will have to say that Omaha Zoo absolutely is the best zoo I've ever been to!

We spent the entire day there - took our time and noticed all kinds of things.

Their "rainforest" was superb!



One of the first things we saw was a pond of my favorite fish (we have several hand-me-down cichlid fish from Miranda and Richard). They are bright colored African freshwater fish.


This photo really doesn't do int justice - there were literally thousands of the fish in a huge pool.


There were dozens of species of monkeys. All extremely healthy looking.


Ugh - a vampire bat - yes, that is real blood.



Now, there is this joke about the "man-sized" fish that I swear I saw on one of our BVI SCUBA dive trips with Sharon and Buddy. No one else saw the fish. So, of course, they make fun of me for the tale.

Here, at the Omaha Zoo, I actually saw several "man-sized" fish.



I took this photo so that you could see the huge parrots on the trees above and the "man-sized" fish in the pond below.

They are actually Arapaima Gigas - in case you want to look them up - the largest fresh water fish.


I must at least say something about the trees. All the greenery in the rainforest dome is real. The trees, however, are man-made out of steel and concrete. But they were absolutely fascinating! They were so real and detailed, you really thought they were genuine. A wonderful artist was at work with these. The scale here is hard to see - but this tree is probably 12' diameter at the base.


Next up was the desert dome.


Again, beautifully done.


The monkeys were all behind wire fences - but they did truly look happy. Or lazy...


This is a sun bear. He was cool looking!


Even the tigers looked happy.


We didn't make it through the whole zoo! So, we're going back tomorrow. Now it's time for happy hour!