Jungle Dome Aviary (Asian Trek), Fort Wayne Zoo

According to Wikipedia, the Fort Wayne zoo traces its origin to 1952, when 54 acres were added to Franke Park for a nature preserve; the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo opened on 3 July 1965 and became the Fort Wayne Zoo on 1 January 2025. Zoo officials unveiled plans for an "Indonesian Rain Forest" in 1992. The first phase, a dome housing a tropical forest, opened in 1994; Orangutan Valley followed in 1995 and Tiger Forest in 1996. Wikipedia sums up the aim of the project: to let visitors experience the sights, sounds and feel of a rain forest. It describes the dome as holding birds, fish, reptiles and, until recently, butterflies.

In April 2023 the zoo announced that the area would be reimagined and renamed Asian Trek, its footprint extended to take in Bamboo Forest and Red Panda Ridge. The dome now appears there as the Jungle Aviary Dome. In February 2024 a local television station still presented it as the "Indonesian Rainforest Dome" in the Asian Trek and announced a guided "Wild Encounter" offered in the off season until 31 March.

In 2024 WANE described a "50-foot geodesic glass dome" (about 15 m), without saying whether that is its height or its diameter, kept all year at 75 to 80 °F (24 to 27 °C) with humidity in the same range. Aerial imagery confirms a triangulated dome with clear facets, set at the centre of a ring-shaped flat-roofed building; OpenStreetMap tags it as a greenhouse under the name "Jungle Dome Aviary".

Inside, a Wikimedia Commons photograph shows a wooden walkway running through dense planting of palms and broad-leaved plants, with daylight falling through the foliage. The zoo writes that visitors set off among the trees; some birds prefer to walk on the ground, others to perch in the treetops. The whole is a free-flight rainforest aviary: according to WANE, birds may run along the path in front of visitors.

Birds are the main subject. The zoo lists 17 species; WANE, in February 2024, speaks of 18 species and 50 to 60 birds, and names ten: Nicobar Pigeon (presented as the closest living relative of the extinct dodo), Golden White Eye (the only bird on the list classed as critically endangered), Victoria Crowned Pigeon, Crested Wood Partridge, Hooded Pitta, Black-naped Fruit Dove, Grey-capped Emerald Dove, Green-naped Pheasant Pigeon and Scarlet-faced Liocichla, plus a duck.

As for plants, a page on the zoo's history speaks of genuine rainforest trees, and the Commons photograph shows an understorey planted with palms. The zoo's page on the dome puts Sumatran orangutans and 17 bird species in a single sentence; Wikipedia places Orangutan Valley as the project's second phase, opened in 1995.

The dome stands in the Asian Trek, an area that also holds the Rain Forest Room (reptiles, including the reticulated python), Tiger Forest (Sumatran tigers), Tree Tops Trail (Javan gibbons and Prevost's squirrels) and Red Panda Ridge. The zoo states that every area of the Asian Trek is wheelchair and stroller accessible.

The dome's steady climate makes it a warm stop on cold days, but the zoo runs by season: the 2024 "Wild Encounter" tour was offered precisely in the off season. Dates for the 2026 season are best checked on the zoo's website. The Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory, another public glasshouse, is also in Fort Wayne.