News

Nancy Armitage was once visiting Thailand when a local grifter threw a python around her neck and demanded money to remove it. Nancy, an avid ophiophilist (she had her own snake named Floyd at home, and used to catch venomous snakes for fun), intuited that the snake was relaxed and posed no threat, so she calmly demurred and walked away, leaving the stunned scammer to run after her to get his snake back.

This year, Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium’s annual Dream Night was held on June 8, 2018 and hosted a record-setting 850 people.

By early August, the Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership (MBP), which was founded by Dr. Edward E. Louis Jr., Director of the Conservation Genetics Department at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium, had planted one tree in Madagascar for each of Nebraska’s 1.92 million residents. By the end of August, the number of trees planted will have reached two million.

“They were just little brown toads no one cared about… until we realized they were almost all gone,” says Jessi Krebs, curator of reptiles and amphibians at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium.

Dr. Lee G. Simmons (Doc) has been leading safaris for groups from Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium for 35 years, so he generally has a good idea of what animals they can expect to see.

Syngnathidae is the family of fish that includes seahorses (as well as leafy seadragons and pipefish). The name is derived from the Greek, meaning “fused jaw” – but their jaw is sooooo not the most interesting thing about them.

One of the first things visitors learn when they visit the red pandas in the new Asian Highlands exhibit at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium is that the animals aren’t pandas – or even bears – at all.

We are excited to announce that Jayme Matis has joined the Omaha Zoo Foundation team as patron relations specialist.

Michael R. McCarthy, co-founder and chairman of the McCarthy Group, LLC, recently joined the Omaha Zoo Foundation board of directors.

Marg From, director of plant conservation at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, has partnered with the state of Hawaii and 13 other organizations and government agencies to save a species of Hawaiian fern that is found only on the island of Maui.

Every year at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, we celebrate our members and Omaha Zoo Foundation patrons with two Member Days that are packed with fun and interactive activities for all ages. This summer, Member Days are July 25 and August 1, but in honor of the 20^th anniversary of the Wildlife Safari Park, we’ve added a special Member Weekend at the park on June 9-10.

Earlier this month, the Omaha Zoo Foundation hosted Women Who Make an Impact, a panel discussion moderated by Jane Miller, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Gallup, and member of the Omaha Zoological Society board of directors.

The discussion, which was part of an exclusive series of zoo events for patrons, was the most well-attended in the series to date, according to Omaha Zoo Foundation Executive Director Tina Cherica.