Henry Doorly Zoo

The Henry Doorly Zoo attracts over a million visitors a year. Starting off as mall Riverview Park zoo, established in 1894, the zoo has made itself into a huge success and a great leader in environmental awareness and education. Included in the zoo is a live indoor tropical rainforest called the Lied Jungle and a huge aquarium called the Scott Aquarium. The zoo is famous for it's breeding of endangered species and exotic animals. A steam-powered locamotive circles around the 100 acre park, so that if you get tired looking at all of the exhibits, you don't have to walk all of the way back.

The Lied Jungle includes three seperate geographical zones, Asia, Africa, and South America. Visitors get to experience all the effects of being in the rainforest all indoors. As you wander through the rainforest, you pass streams and waterfalls and can even go up into the treetops to actually experience what the primeapes and birds do.

The Scott aquarium is over 72,000 square feet. The glass tunnel part alone holds 850,000 gallons of water. Sharks, Rays, and even Penguins inhabit and greet the guests. The zoo also has many other types of exhibits.

The Aviary is the main attraction at the zoo bypassing all of the other exhibits. It's free-flight and has an elevated walkway and as you walk in, you are greeted by more than 500 different exotic species of bird. Their aviary is the second largest in the world.

The zoo's cat exhibit is the largest in North America. The cats living their range from Lions, Cheetahs, Jaguars, and Pumas to Sumatran Tigers, Asian Snow Leopards, and Siberian Tigers.

Some of the other exhibits are a Bear exhibit which includes a Polar Bear, a Giraffe exhibit, an Elephant exhibit and a Sea Lion exhibit.

There are other fun events that you can do at the zoo as well as just looking at the exhibits. During the holidays, you can have supper with Santa or even have cookies with Mrs. Claus, a special treat for those with children. For those a bit older, a wonderland of special lights and images has been set up as well as a light show in their IMAX theatre. So if you would like to visit somewhere that is fun and educational, I would definitely recommend this to anyone that loves the outdoors and the rainforests and for anyone that would love to visit the rainforests and just can't.

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