This is a wonderful place to spend an exhausting day. This zoo has hundreds of animals to see in a very nice facility, and the price was very reasonable for a full day of touring the grounds and a terrific IMAX video on butterflies. We went on a Monday and avoided the weekend crowds, even though there were lots of school groups there and Mothers with their little ones in tow. A couple of the large aviaries were closed on a week day but we still got to see a lot. They have a huge desert environment dome with lots of free flying birds and three separate desert environments inside. Then below the dome they have a whole nocturnal environment with animals which would not be active in the light of day.
Even while we ate lunch, we were able to observe animals in the jungle exhibit next door and a female White Handed Gibbon with twin babies. We wandered through a huge reptile exhibit and a wonderful aquarium before going to the IMAX show. After the show we went through the butterfly exhibit and Geoff ended up with one landing on this hat. We saw some animals we had already seen in Alaska in the wild but it was still a nice trip to the zoo.
This zoo has had a lot of births in the past two years. It seemed nearly every exhibit we visited had a sign indicating there had been a birth in 2012 or 2011.
We have actually been camped in Council Bluffs, Iowa while we were here and will be heading next to Des Moines, Iowa for a few days before heading toward St’ Louis, Missouri.
