Lied Jungle

Omaha's zoo, founded in 1894 as the Riverview Park Zoo and now Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, added a fully enclosed rainforest in the early 1990s. The Lied Jungle opened on April 4, 1992, at a cost of $15 million. From the start it ranked among the largest indoor rainforest exhibits in the world, and the zoo today bills it as America's largest indoor rainforest.

Critical recognition came quickly: Time magazine named it among the world's top ten designs of 1992, and Family Life magazine called it the single best zoo exhibit in the country in 1994.

During the COVID-19 pandemic the building was at least partly closed between 2020 and 2023, and it had fully reopened to the public by July 2023. It remains one of the main attractions of a zoo that covers more than 130 acres (53 hectares) and receives over two million visitors a year.

The Lied Jungle occupies an 80-foot (24 m) building with a footprint of 1.5 acres (0.61 hectare), just inside the zoo's main entrance. Its total floor space of 123,000 square feet (about 11,400 m²) divides into 61,000 square feet (about 5,670 m²) of planted exhibit space, 35,000 square feet (about 3,250 m²) of animal management areas and 11,000 square feet (about 1,020 m²) given over to education.

The visit unfolds on two levels: a trail on the jungle floor and a raised walkway that runs around and above the animals. Each level is divided into continental sections for Asia, Africa and South America. A 50-foot (15 m) waterfall is the centrepiece, and visitors can step behind the curtain of water to look out at the forest through the falls. A restaurant, Durham Treetops, is built into the structure.

Some ninety animal species live in the Lied Jungle, spread across its three geographical sections. Primates are well represented, with gibbons, Colombian spider monkeys and blue monkeys. Visitors can also see tapirs, pygmy hippos, otters, scarlet macaws, hamerkops and snakes, while the pools hold South American fish such as the arapaima and the electric eel.

The planted vegetation recreates the feel of a rainforest and serves as habitat as much as scenery. Moving between the three continents invites comparison of the fauna and forest types of Asia, Africa and South America.

The Lied Jungle lies just inside the zoo's main entrance, so it often makes a first or last stop of the day. Both levels, the ground trail and the elevated walkway, are worth covering to take in the full range of views, including the look-out from behind the great waterfall.

Warm and humid year-round, the building works in any season, though it closes somewhat earlier than the rest of the zoo. The Durham Treetops restaurant inside the building offers a break in the middle of the forest before continuing to the rest of the zoo.