Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo

[Captain Callum]

Zoo introduction (1/3)

The winner of the most requested zoo recreation in my community vote this month (June 2024) is Omaha's Henry Doorly zoo! The zoo is among the world's best zoos with many outstanding habitat designs or the record holder / past record holder for the largest habitat of its type. World's best is a great title to look at in planet zoo design but also comes with a challenge especially realistic habitat designs. If the habitat designs themselves are a problem, well the zoo is also suffers a lack of google maps streetview which makes the task of recreating the zoo much more difficult - yay! The lack of the google streetview was considered during the choice of the zoo but the extensive coverage of the zoo on youtube, especially with the addition of 360 videos makes the task a tiny bit easier, since a large portion of the zoo building is actually indoors. The entrance area of the zoo holds 4 major indoor habitat buildings which is a large part of where the 'world class' title belongs.

As it may look I'm tackling 3 recreations at once, work on omaha will not start until the calgary zoo north is on the workshop, 2 recreations at once is more than enough to attempt lol. Early/mid july is the expected start date of actual ingame work on this zoo but the amount of planning needed for the zoo is a huge task so I am split between building the pretty easy calgary zoo habitats and making plans for this zoo which will take a long long time to build.

Zoo map

Let's introduce everyone to each of the areas found across the zoo:

Main Entrance

There are actually 2 entrances located at the bottom of the zoo, the direction we are facing looking at that zoo map from the entrance is east. We have the main entrance and the north entrance, the north entrance is basically a gate and thats it so talking about that is pointless. The main entrance however is where most zoo guests would enter. We have usual guest amenties here - ticket booths, stroller rental shop, gift shop, guest info etc. Both sides of the entrance have large plaza with attractive planters, some animal statues however the main difference here is the addition of an imax / giant screen theater. Buildings here are also covered in these modern panels to give the entrance a unique modern look.

Lied Jungle

Connected to the main entrance building is one of the most impressive indoor tropical houses in north america, the lied jungle (at its opening) was the largest tropical house in the world although some european zoos now hold that title. The lied jungle is a tiered rainforest habitat where guests travel from the treetops to the forest floor seeing an array of animals like gibbons, otters, malayan tapir, and pygmy hippos. There is also a restaurant attached to the lied jungle which has large windows looking into the jungle where guests can see lar gibbons swinging by. There are some exhibit animals like fruit bats which cannot be used properly, the habitat design is far smaller than the walkthrough exhibit so static bats will be made to replicate this part of the jungle.

Desert Dome

Probably the most iconic sight of the henry doorly zoo is the huge geodesic dome holding the largest indoor desert in the world. The desert dome instantly transports guests to 3 desert of the world. The deserts of africa, australia and southwest america each holding their unique animals. The desert habitats weave around impressive rockwork where we can find klipspringer, rock hyrax, perentie, collared peccary, ocelot and more. The downside however in this impressive dome environment is the small habitat sizes for animals, this could be changed with my usual size increases however but small habitats are expected in the dome.

To be continued...

 

[NachoB]

My favorite zoo i've never been to

 

[Captain Callum]

Zoo Introduction (2/3)

Contining with the introduction overview then:

Kingdoms of the Night

The kingdoms of the night is probably the world's greatest basement, located under the desert dome. This is the world's largest nocturnal habitat area, featuring many different nocturnal habitats such as aardvarks, fruit bats, wallabies, echidnas, and even some swamp animals like american alligators. Yes the swamp is also the world's largest indoor swamp. The twilight pack is going to get some heavy use in this area, working in nocturnal environments like this will be another challenge, where habitats will be designed to be viewed at night for the best effect.

Scott Aquarium

Another world's largest, the Scott aquarium is the world's largest aquarium in a zoo but no it's not georgia aquarium in a zoo, we are not going to see whale sharks here. The scott aquarium would be a decent standalone aquarium with many fish exhibits, 2 deep ocean tanks with underwater tunnels and a indoor penguin habitat. The aquarium covers lots of different environments as guests travel through the aquarium - polar regions, temperate oceans, coral reefs, and the amazon river are all represented in the aquarium. As for working habitat animals we could expect to see king, gentoo and rockhopper penguins, sharks, stingrays, sea turtles and assorted coral reef fish in the modded version aswell (like in the houston zoo galapagos tank).

Butterfly and insect pavillion

Ah my favourite! (not really ) Finishing off the entrance building complexes, the insect pavillion houses a walkthrough butterfly garden and insect exhibits. The interesting part of this is the building is shaped like an insect flying from above, that will be fun to build, making educational signage for insects will not be.

Children's Adventure trails

Going in the other direction but still at the bottom of the zoo is the main children's zoo area. We can find an alaskan themed plaza with food and gift shops also a large splashpad area. For animals the adventure trails include some general children zoo animals - prairie dogs (with bubble domes), domestic goats and pigs and a walkthrough budgie exhibit. Lots of interactive parts form the adventure trail with playgrounds and other kinds of stuff for kids to play.

 

[Captain Callum]

Zoo introduction (3/3)

African Grasslands

Pretty much half the zoo is dedicated to the african grasslands, showcasing the vast diversity of the grasslands with large mixed habitats for many iconic african animals. We have a kopje habitat for meerkats, 2 habitats for african elepants (one is mixed with zebra), a mixed giraffe, rhino and impala habitat, a sable antelope and bongo habitats and some predator habitats for lions and cheetah. This area will basically be the length of the map as looking at the zoo map, a gondola ride takes guests from one end to the other.

Expedition Madagascar

Still in africa, expedition madagascar takes guests to the island of madagascar where an indoor building and an outdoor lemur island is full of unique island animals. Fossa, aye aye, and so many different kinds of lemurs are found in this area.

Asian Highlands

The focus on himalayan asian animals is the theme of this area, where tropical animals are found in the lied jungle, we can find the iconic animals of grassland habitats to the himalayan mountains in these habitats. Sloth bear, tigers, indian rhino, takin, red panda, cranes and more are found here. This area also features 2 train bridges as the train loop cuts through this hilly area.

Sea Lion Shores

A modern addition to the zoo, this is a pretty large sea lion habitat with natural theming similar to the habitat in the houston zoo, houston may have taken inspiration from this habitat in fact as the rockwork is similar. Guests have underwater viewing through a large window into the pacific northwest themed sea lion pool.

Simmons Aviary

When this opened in the 1980's, it was named the second largest walkthrough aviary in the world. A boardwalk though this wetland brings guests close to flamingos, white stork, ibis, ducks and lots more birds. Clearly the unmodded aviary will basically be a flamingo aviary while the modded one will be an exciting walkthrough full of different colorful birds. Pelicans have been noted to be featured in the aviary, but the website describes these pink backed pelicans to be placed in the african grasslands lake.

Great Ape Valley

Actually 2 seperate animal areas - the gorilla valley and orangutan forest, this area focuses on these great apes and their monkey friends. The orangutan forest saw a modern upgrade which opened this year focusing on the southeast asia theming where we can find siamangs, francois langurs and orangutans. The Gorilla valley brings us to the african forest where we can find gorillas, black and white colobus monkeys and african spurred tortoises.

So thats the introduction done introducing everything we can expect, I am going to need to make my own maps for a large portion of the zoo since some of these layouts are pretty complicated to say the least. The start of the zoo will be the most difficult, the desert dome and the lied jungle are going to be very complex builds with very few references online addressing their exact layout. Some creative planning may be required to pull this off.

 

[RightWhale]

This is gonna be really exciting to watch!

 

[NachoB]

This is gonna be really exciting to watch!

Him slowly descending into madness?

 

[Captain Callum]

Him slowly descending into madness?

No having to draw out maps from YouTube videos is totally fun... I haven't even started the zoo and I'm silently crying.

 

[Captain Callum]

Zoo Entrance

The first progress post is thankfully the main entrance all in one! (unlike calgary...). The entrance was relatively straight forward enough with a standard plaza connected to a portion of the large parking lot, the unique parts was definitely the design of the building walls and the plaza path pattern which I included after some liked the similar patterns on my houston zoo build. The main entrance so far includes the main entrance plaza, a portion of the parking lot, a guest services building, a gift shop building and a large theatre building. The gift shop building and theatre are works in progress as the plaza itself was enough work for the first episode.

Overview of the main entrance, from left to right - parking lot, theatre building, gift shop building, entrance plaza, guest services building.

Thankfully the arrangement of the parking lot allowed me to build a small portion of the parking lot, honestly I really don't like building them at all.

View of the entrance from the parking lot paths.

Main view of the entrance plaza, the modern metal pattern for the building walls was acheived with the 2d rectangle/square blocks.

A closer look at the guest services building, this long building features tickets, restrooms, guest services and first aid. Also featured in the picture is the info stands featuring the zoo map, animal encounter times and the name of the sponsored plaza (why is it always a bank lol).

We can see the large zoo signs for the entrance pretty easily, large 4 metre custom media screens are used to display the complex designs. The zoo name sign is a static sign while the fantastic giraffe sign is supposed to be a digital screen with changing displays but ingame its just one display for memberships.

Cant't forget about the rooftops! The rooftops are pretty busy with lots of supports for the metal wall pattern and several air conditioning units and roof vents.

The gift shop building rooftop is also connected to the theatre rooftop which is covered in lots of solar panels, like the houston zoo gift shop, it features a custom made roof made of the girder beams and 2d rectangle blocks.

 

[RightWhale]

Zoo Entrance

The first progress post is thankfully the main entrance all in one! (unlike calgary...). The entrance was relatively straight forward enough with a standard plaza connected to a portion of the large parking lot, the unique parts was definitely the design of the building walls and the plaza path pattern which I included after some liked the similar patterns on my houston zoo build. The main entrance so far includes the main entrance plaza, a portion of the parking lot, a guest services building, a gift shop building and a large theatre building. The gift shop building and theatre are works in progress as the plaza itself was enough work for the first episode.

Overview of the main entrance, from left to right - parking lot, theatre building, gift shop building, entrance plaza, guest services building.
View attachment 396925

Thankfully the arrangement of the parking lot allowed me to build a small portion of the parking lot, honestly I really don't like building them at all.
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View of the entrance from the parking lot paths.
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Main view of the entrance plaza, the modern metal pattern for the building walls was acheived with the 2d rectangle/square blocks.
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A closer look at the guest services building, this long building features tickets, restrooms, guest services and first aid. Also featured in the picture is the info stands featuring the zoo map, animal encounter times and the name of the sponsored plaza (why is it always a bank lol).
View attachment 396929

We can see the large zoo signs for the entrance pretty easily, large 4 metre custom media screens are used to display the complex designs. The zoo name sign is a static sign while the fantastic giraffe sign is supposed to be a digital screen with changing displays but ingame its just one display for memberships.
View attachment 396930

Cant't forget about the rooftops! The rooftops are pretty busy with lots of supports for the metal wall pattern and several air conditioning units and roof vents.
View attachment 396931

The gift shop building rooftop is also connected to the theatre rooftop which is covered in lots of solar panels, like the houston zoo gift shop, it features a custom made roof made of the girder beams and 2d rectangle blocks.
View attachment 396932

You are really good with entrances! This looks great as always.

I have a question: I struggle with bare walls. Like if I see a massive wall, let’s say one made of brick, I almost always feel compelled to add something to it. How do I fight that feeling? Sometimes walls are meant to be bare, or I shouldn’t add more design unless needed. What do you recommend?

 

[Captain Callum]

You are really good with entrances! This looks great as always.

I have a question: I struggle with bare walls. Like if I see a massive wall, let’s say one made of brick, I almost always feel compelled to add something to it. How do I fight that feeling? Sometimes walls are meant to be bare, or I shouldn’t add more design unless needed. What do you recommend?

Bare walls aren't actually a common part of my zoos but rather a fence with some natural scenery is the most common way to go to break up different areas. For walls that don't need an extra detail to them, I like using the stone brick wall with the topper wall, and the indonesian brick wall has a nice pattern that works with a variety of scenes thanks to its flexicolor option. Sometimes for the brick wall, I do actually add some flat ivy growing on it for an older style wall being overtaken with nature, I think some of my houston zoo pictures featured that style. It fills the brick wall need for a classic theme but also fills out the wall without adding too much to it.

Generally the urge to place something on a large wall is too great for me aswell, it is often some a trim, like a plaster trim on the bottom, some metal beams to highlight the edges or like the ivy I use on houston's perimeter brick walls.

 

[Marvinb]

You are really good with entrances! This looks great as always.

I have a question: I struggle with bare walls. Like if I see a massive wall, let’s say one made of brick, I almost always feel compelled to add something to it. How do I fight that feeling? Sometimes walls are meant to be bare, or I shouldn’t add more design unless needed. What do you recommend?

When in doubt id recommend throwing some decals on there, definetly helps break up the repeating pattern of the walltexture. Its such a small thing but imo it helps so much

 

[Captain Callum]

Real Zoo Overview - Lied Jungle

Let's look at the first zoo overview for the omaha zoo - the lied jungle! Omaha doesn't have a true entrance habitat like most zoos do, we have 2 major animal buildings - the desert dome to the left which is the most obvious sight with its massive geodesic dome, and we also have the less obvious lied jungle to the right of the entrance. The lied jungle is connected to the durham treetops restaurant which is located at the far end of the guest services building we saw in the last post.

I have started using a new map design which is similar to the style of zoo maps real zoos use in their planning which helps everyone really understand the layout, the animals featured and other key features of the building which I couldn't do with my past low-effort style of maps.

Animals featured

• Asian Small Clawed Otter & Lar Gibbon
• Philippine Crocodile (Using the spectacled caiman for both versions of the zoo)
• Spectacled Flying Fox walkthrough exhibit
• Malayan Tapir & Francois Langur (langur will be siamang for the unmodded version)
• Pygmy Hippo & De brazza monkey (monkey to be b&w ruffed lemur in unmodded version)
• Wolf's Guenon (red ruffed lemur in unmodded version)
• African spotted otter (giant otter in both versions)
• Baird's Tapir & Howler Monkey (monkey will be the capuchin in unmodded version)
• Spider monkey & squirrel monkey (capuchins for both in unmodded version)

So... what is the lied jungle? The lied jungle is Omaha's answer to a tropical jungle building. The two tiered layout immerses guests in a lush tropical jungle environment while they explore the jungle floor or the canopy trail experiencing the jungles of asia, africa and south america. One of the key reasons why the lied jungle is one of the best indoor jungles, is it is the largest indoor tropical building in any north american zoo - the building measures around 100 x 75 metres big which will no doubt be much larger ingame to get the scale right inside rather than outside. The connecting durham treetops restaurant also provides guests with windows looking directly into the lied jungle, this is why it is called the treetops restaurant!

Let's get to the pictures then:

Taken from google earth, the lied jungle is a pretty large building which is located on a slope which does make it look really big. The zoo itself is hilly in parts so this works for a large building like the lied jungle. So the entrance already built is in the middle, the work around the lied jungle will be the next progress.

Entrance to the lied jungle, the large rooftop ventilation for the lied jungle can be seen.

The overview of the interior, 2 large tree trunks serve as roof supports in the middle of the interior. We can see the lower trail here with the canopy trail at the far end. The canopy trail effectively winds around the perimeter of the building.

One of the main sights at the start of the canopy trail is this waterfall in the middle of the lar gibbon habitat.

The path enters a cave with views into various habitats, the view of the lar gibbons can be seen in 2 habitat spaces with the canopy trail dividing the habitat.

Lots of foliage wraps around the canopy trail, to the right is the malayan tapir habitat where a moat is used as habitat barrier. There are also rock walls forming a barrier between the lower trail and the habitat itself along with tropical themed wall murals.

Looking down into the malayan tapir habitat, as we can expect, the habitats are not the largest but not too small either.

The last part to look at is the treetops restaurant, lots of tables are placed next to the windows looking into the lied jungle. The lar gibbons can easily be seen along with parts of the canopy trail.

The actual restuarant offerings is a typical north american zoo restaurant, nothing too exciting.

 

[NachoB]

Can't wait for this!

 

[Captain Callum]

Lied Jungle - Exterior & Entrance

The Lied Jungle is one big tropical building, the exterior work has now finished for the building and the entrances into the lied jungle. The building stands at around 120 metres long, 75 metres wide, and 25 metres tall, these are almost a match to the real building however I did increase the length from 100 to 120 metres just in case I need that extra room for the central habitats.

While the building looks really big, it isn't actually that noticeable from the entrance apart from its roof. Large trees on most sides of the building hides it from view and I assume most would only see it either on the map or passing by on the main path. This will be become obvious when we see the desert dome built on what is visible at first sight. So the above view shows us the large building connected to the entrance, the building with the pointy glass roof is the treetops restaurant that will look into the lied jungle when built.

The most difficult part of building a large rainforest building is ensuring the glass roof looks good. Sure most people will just use the prebuilt glass roof panels for a rectangle building which is easy enough but having a custom shape and using individual glass panels is challenging. Generally the glass roof is 'clean' with very few overlapping pieces, only the sides of the corner sections have additonal glass pane pieces to ensure all gaps were filled.

The backstage area was also an important part of the exterior, walls were especially an important task so they didn't look bland for the size of the building. Layering the rustic stone wall with dark grey plaster was essential to this, added windows, rooftop fences and power equipment such as the massive cooling tower makes this backstage one of my favourites.

On the ground, the first view of the lied jungle guests get is across from the Omaha steaks grill which is an outdoor bbq grill space for when the weather is good. Lots of picnic tables give guests a good space to relax right in front of the lied jungle.

Past the grill patio area, guests now reach the main entrance to the lied jungle. Custom banners line the path towards the entrance which has 2 sets of doors, in real life the right door is the entry while the left is the exit.

Once inside, guests are transported into a rainforest themed room. Use of the palm thatch, stained wood and lots of educational signs makes an appealing entrance. The canopy trail, the overhead pathway, is located to the right or left of this position as it loops around the entire building.

At the right end of the entrance room, a rainforest themed display is located. This room should actually be darker but lighting was a pain to work with in here so I opted for some more of the tropical mural walls.

Heading back to the far left side of the entrance room, there are some stairs or an elevator taking guests downstairs to the jungle trail. The jungle trail is the lower trail which allows guests to have the choice of exploring the lied jungle from above or below.

The downstairs room is more of an animal gallery where lots of pictures of the animals featured in the lied jungle are found. Like the canopy trail above, there are 2 entrances to the jungle trail as the jungle trail is also a loop.

The other part of this room features 4 educational signs of the rainforests represented in the lied jungle. South america (amazon), africa (congo) and southeast asian rainforests are the theme of the lied jungle.

 

[RightWhale]

Amazing work as always! I love how you use the educational signs, which just makes me wish we had more options in game already.

 

[Captain Callum]

Lied Jungle - Lar Gibbon & Indian Crested Porcupine Habitat

Building the paths inside the lied jungle made me realise one thing, there was no way I was going to get the 2 habitats of lar gibbon and still have a decent space for them to move around so I decided to merge the habitats and get a little creative. This did result in the loss of the asian small clawed otter but with them being so small in relavance to the overhead path there really wasn't much lost. The habitat is still very lively with 5 lar gibbons, 2 indian crested porcupines and many static fish underwater.

We start from that entrance room with the jungle exhibit displays with the tent, the entrance to the lied jungle transports guests into a lush rainforest enviroment. This is the canopy trail, or the overhead walkway that does an outer loop of the interior. We can see a aviary on the left and a sign welcoming us to the asian section of the lied jungle.

A closer look into the aviary shows a pair of luzon bleeding heart doves, actually nearly twice the size of the real aviary. My usual setup of the african branches and some tropical foliage which is pretty simple after all that practise building those custom exhibits for the houston zoo's reptile house.

We turn around and are welcomed with the lar gibbon habitat, surely one of my favourite habitat builds. It consists of 3 faux tree with many branches, vines connecting each tree, a waterfall in the background and lots of tropical foliage. We can also see large one-way glass windows above the waterfall, that is the windows of the treetops restaurant which provides a great view into the lar gibbon habitat.

One of the key features of this rainforest theme is the 32 metre screen with one of my exhibit biome pictures. It was pretty difficult fitting such a large screen on this wall but the result was an immersive habitat looking into a southeast asian enviroment where any other interior habitat would of been a bland green wall. Blending fountain bamboo like on the left side of the screen creates a 3d effect to the tree seen of the screen and expands it into the rockwork.

So that's the view of the lar gibbon habitat from the canopy trail, but that's not all! The jungle trail or lower trail which is an inner loop of the lied jungle also brings guests down to the ground and gives a different perspective of the habitat. We can often get an underwater view where we can spot some fish in the water.

The first thing we see on the lower trail is a prehensile skink exhibit in the lower entrance cave. This is pretty much a 4 x 4 metre exhibit box but entirely custom made with tropical scenery.

One of my favourite views of the habitat, is from the lower cave windows into the habitat. We get a clear view of the gibbon trees showing just how tall they are and we get an underwater view where we can see some fish. This habitat is home to mekong giant catfish, giant gourami (pictured), and grass carp.

 

[weinerman]

Lied Jungle - Lar Gibbon & Indian Crested Porcupine Habitat

Building the paths inside the lied jungle made me realise one thing, there was no way I was going to get the 2 habitats of lar gibbon and still have a decent space for them to move around so I decided to merge the habitats and get a little creative. This did result in the loss of the asian small clawed otter but with them being so small in relavance to the overhead path there really wasn't much lost. The habitat is still very lively with 5 lar gibbons, 2 indian crested porcupines and many static fish underwater.

We start from that entrance room with the jungle exhibit displays with the tent, the entrance to the lied jungle transports guests into a lush rainforest enviroment. This is the canopy trail, or the overhead walkway that does an outer loop of the interior. We can see a aviary on the left and a sign welcoming us to the asian section of the lied jungle.
View attachment 399010

A closer look into the aviary shows a pair of luzon bleeding heart doves, actually nearly twice the size of the real aviary. My usual setup of the african branches and some tropical foliage which is pretty simple after all that practise building those custom exhibits for the houston zoo's reptile house.
View attachment 399011

We turn around and are welcomed with the lar gibbon habitat, surely one of my favourite habitat builds. It consists of 3 faux tree with many branches, vines connecting each tree, a waterfall in the background and lots of tropical foliage. We can also see large one-way glass windows above the waterfall, that is the windows of the treetops restaurant which provides a great view into the lar gibbon habitat.
View attachment 399012

One of the key features of this rainforest theme is the 32 metre screen with one of my exhibit biome pictures. It was pretty difficult fitting such a large screen on this wall but the result was an immersive habitat looking into a southeast asian enviroment where any other interior habitat would of been a bland green wall. Blending fountain bamboo like on the left side of the screen creates a 3d effect to the tree seen of the screen and expands it into the rockwork.
View attachment 399013
View attachment 399015
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View attachment 399017

So that's the view of the lar gibbon habitat from the canopy trail, but that's not all! The jungle trail or lower trail which is an inner loop of the lied jungle also brings guests down to the ground and gives a different perspective of the habitat. We can often get an underwater view where we can spot some fish in the water.

The first thing we see on the lower trail is a prehensile skink exhibit in the lower entrance cave. This is pretty much a 4 x 4 metre exhibit box but entirely custom made with tropical scenery.
View attachment 399018

One of my favourite views of the habitat, is from the lower cave windows into the habitat. We get a clear view of the gibbon trees showing just how tall they are and we get an underwater view where we can see some fish. This habitat is home to mekong giant catfish, giant gourami (pictured), and grass carp.
View attachment 399019

I spy a fish
Awesome stuff both the fish and the building
I was just at the zoo not terribly long ago and idk if you could possibly make it more accurate within the confines of the video game

 

[Captain Callum]

I spy a fish
Awesome stuff both the fish and the building
I was just at the zoo not terribly long ago and idk if you could possibly make it more accurate within the confines of the video game

Thanks! A couple of my fish blueprints are already on the workshop including the asian fish seen here, I was planning to do a single thread on the freshwater fish packs I made but I took a short break from completing the north american and europe fish packs so it should come out at some point. It's something like 60 freshwater fish I managed to make/plan with cichlids, and fish from asia, africa and oceania already built.

Steam Workshop::Freshwater Fish

Steam Workshop: Planet Zoo. A collection of freshwater fish props to add to your zoo, features a selection of freshwater fish from around the world including cichlids, carp, trout, catfish and more.

steamcommunity.com

 

[Captain Callum]

Lied Jungle - The Asian Jungle

While we have already seen the lar gibbon habitat of the asian jungle, lets take a look at the other animals we can find in this area. The theme of tropical asia is pretty loosely applied in the lied jungle (as is for all the themed areas), we have animals stretching from india to australia while the most well known animals are found in southeast asia where the educational signage is actually about. In the lied jungle we have indian flying foxes, indian porcupines, lar gibbons, francois langurs, malayan tapirs, philippine crocodiles and even a eurasian eagle owl aviary. It doesn't make much sense for any consistant geograhpical theme but it is a nice range of animals to see under one roof. The other themes - africa and south america feel much more consistent which we will see shortly.

So, excluding the already seen lar gibbon habitat we can expect to find:

• A philippine crocodile habitat found on the lower/jungle trail. Spectactled caimans are stand-ins for this species as it is the closest there is for both offical and modded animals.
• A Indian flying fox walkthrough exhibit, using the spectactled flying fox which really isn't that noticeable a difference when they all fly around.
• A malayan tapir and francois langur (or siamang for the unmodded zoo) habitat. Similar to the lar gibbon habitat with the climbing trees.
• Various asia/oceania static exhibits like the frilled lizard, boyd's forest dragon and eurasian eagle owl.
• 3 species of asian free flight birds - nicobar pigeon, western crowned pigeon, and green imperial pigeon. For themed purposes, I will only add free flight birds to their own area.

As the Lied Jungle gets more complicated inside, I will show what the jungle looks like from above through the roof to help understand how much progress on been made. The only real way to follow would be using my layout map seen in the lied jungle overview post. Looking at the above view picture below, we can see the lied jungle is about 40-50 % completed as the asian area is by far the largest space.

Starting the tour of the asian jungle from the lar gibbon area, that fallen tree entrance is now been built into the asian cave. The asian cave features the static exhibits, an optional wooden bridge crossing and above views over the flying fox walkthrough exhibit.

Inside the cave, a rocky pathway leads guests past viewpoints under the waterfall and past the flying fox exhibit. We will also see the large static exhibits on the right side of the cave.

One of the static exhibits in the cave is for the boyd's forest dragon. This species is found in the tropical areas of northern australia.

After exiting the cave, we find the path becomes split here with a tree growing between the paths. On the left, the flying fox exhibit, the right, the malayan tapir habitat and straight ahead is the transition cave into the next themed area which will be africa. We will find one of these small caves for each area so there is no overlap in each area.

From the canopy trail looking left, we find the nicest view of the asian section. An elevated view of the flying fox walktrhough exhibit which has been made as natural as I could make it as if guests as wandering past a free flight flying fox section (which is what the lied jungle has here in real life). We can see the various viewpoints from the asian cave and the wooden bridge next to the waterfall.

Less imperssive is the malayan tapir habitat seen on the right side of the canopy trail. Since basically no natural light shines here, it is covered in a shadow making the habitat feel rather dull. The habitat is actually bigger than real life, offering not that much space for the tapirs. At least the water has been made shallow so the tapirs can roam most of the habitat.

Also seen in various locations are the static birds I mentioned, these have been placed in location where they might be seen easily rather than hidden in a tree away from tree. Seen here is the nicobar pigeon with its colorful wings.

If we return to the jungle trail cave where we saw those asian fish in the lar gibbon post, we can see another habitat which is hidden from view on the canopy trail. Another dull lighting habitat is the philippine crocodile habitat where we have glass windows looking into the habitat. As the habitat is largely water and only crocodiles to look at, the shadows thankfully don't make the habitat as dull as the tapir one.

 

[RightWhale]

Lied Jungle - The Asian Jungle

While we have already seen the lar gibbon habitat of the asian jungle, lets take a look at the other animals we can find in this area. The theme of tropical asia is pretty loosely applied in the lied jungle (as is for all the themed areas), we have animals stretching from india to australia while the most well known animals are found in southeast asia where the educational signage is actually about. In the lied jungle we have indian flying foxes, indian porcupines, lar gibbons, francois langurs, malayan tapirs, philippine crocodiles and even a eurasian eagle owl aviary. It doesn't make much sense for any consistant geograhpical theme but it is a nice range of animals to see under one roof. The other themes - africa and south america feel much more consistent which we will see shortly.

So, excluding the already seen lar gibbon habitat we can expect to find:

• A philippine crocodile habitat found on the lower/jungle trail. Spectactled caimans are stand-ins for this species as it is the closest there is for both offical and modded animals.
• A Indian flying fox walkthrough exhibit, using the spectactled flying fox which really isn't that noticeable a difference when they all fly around.
• A malayan tapir and francois langur (or siamang for the unmodded zoo) habitat. Similar to the lar gibbon habitat with the climbing trees.
• Various asia/oceania static exhibits like the frilled lizard, boyd's forest dragon and eurasian eagle owl.
• 3 species of asian free flight birds - nicobar pigeon, western crowned pigeon, and green imperial pigeon. For themed purposes, I will only add free flight birds to their own area.

As the Lied Jungle gets more complicated inside, I will show what the jungle looks like from above through the roof to help understand how much progress on been made. The only real way to follow would be using my layout map seen in the lied jungle overview post. Looking at the above view picture below, we can see the lied jungle is about 40-50 % completed as the asian area is by far the largest space.

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Starting the tour of the asian jungle from the lar gibbon area, that fallen tree entrance is now been built into the asian cave. The asian cave features the static exhibits, an optional wooden bridge crossing and above views over the flying fox walkthrough exhibit.
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Inside the cave, a rocky pathway leads guests past viewpoints under the waterfall and past the flying fox exhibit. We will also see the large static exhibits on the right side of the cave.
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One of the static exhibits in the cave is for the boyd's forest dragon. This species is found in the tropical areas of northern australia.
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After exiting the cave, we find the path becomes split here with a tree growing between the paths. On the left, the flying fox exhibit, the right, the malayan tapir habitat and straight ahead is the transition cave into the next themed area which will be africa. We will find one of these small caves for each area so there is no overlap in each area.
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From the canopy trail looking left, we find the nicest view of the asian section. An elevated view of the flying fox walktrhough exhibit which has been made as natural as I could make it as if guests as wandering past a free flight flying fox section (which is what the lied jungle has here in real life). We can see the various viewpoints from the asian cave and the wooden bridge next to the waterfall.
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Less imperssive is the malayan tapir habitat seen on the right side of the canopy trail. Since basically no natural light shines here, it is covered in a shadow making the habitat feel rather dull. The habitat is actually bigger than real life, offering not that much space for the tapirs. At least the water has been made shallow so the tapirs can roam most of the habitat.
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Also seen in various locations are the static birds I mentioned, these have been placed in location where they might be seen easily rather than hidden in a tree away from tree. Seen here is the nicobar pigeon with its colorful wings.
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If we return to the jungle trail cave where we saw those asian fish in the lar gibbon post, we can see another habitat which is hidden from view on the canopy trail. Another dull lighting habitat is the philippine crocodile habitat where we have glass windows looking into the habitat. As the habitat is largely water and only crocodiles to look at, the shadows thankfully don't make the habitat as dull as the tapir one.
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Amazing work as always! I am currently trying to make a small indoor jungle myself, right now only for spectacled caimans and capybara (I am secretly hoping we get more animals for this). How do you recommend going about it to make it feel more realistic/ natural?