News

It’s Mother’s Day, and Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium is celebrating all of our animal moms.

First, of course, there’s Dottie, mother to our most recent new addition, the still-to-be-named giraffe calf who was born on Sunday here at the zoo. 

The vaquita marina porpoise is the most critically endangered cetacean in the world. In November 2016, it was believed there were only 30 vaquitas left, down from 60 in 2015. Then, last month, three more vaquitas were found dead in illegal gillnets.

When people think of Hawaii, they often conjure the island state’s tropical forests, filled with profusions of brightly colored blooms against lush, green backdrops. Parts of it seem so untouched and primordial, that one might be lulled into believing it is a paradise that will always remain unchanged.

Have you ever walked around Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium and marveled at the fascinating and varied plant life on our grounds? You’re not alone. Many visitors are as captivated by our flora as they are by our fauna.

Dr. Cheryl Morris, Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium’s new Chief Conservation Officer, compares the zoo’s conservation work to a swimming duck. To the passive observer, it looks like it’s just moving along placidly, but beneath the surface, it is constantly paddling its feet.

It has been a year since Jayei, Warren, Kiki, Omma, Lolly and Claire arrived at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, and the city has given them a massive heartland welcome.

“It’s about helping people make an emotional connection to the animals through photography,” says Dennis Pate, Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium’s director and CEO, of photographer Joel Sartore’s Photo Ark.

Welcome to part three of our blog series highlighting the recipients of Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium Director’s Award, which honors individuals from the zoo staff who completed projects in 2016 that had a notable positive impact on zoo operations and/or the guest experience; or showed significant costs savings or added tangible value to a process or park operation or animal husbandry in general.

Welcome to part two of our blog series highlighting the recipients of Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium Director’s Award, which honors eight individuals from the zoo staff who completed projects in 2016 that had a notable positive impact on zoo operations and/or the guest experience; or showed significant costs savings or added tangible value to a process or park operation or animal husbandry in general.

We are thrilled to have Dr. Cheryl Morris as our special guest at our next Cocktails and Conservation event on Thursday, March 2 from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. Dr. Morris was recently named Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium’s chief conservation officer, and is a longtime member of the zoo family.

“My husband and I have been together for 20 years,” says Dr. Peggy Jones. “And we have always enjoyed the zoo.”

During their college years, the Joneses, who are both physicians in the Omaha area, had a basic membership to Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium. After they started their family, they decided that becoming zoo patrons would be a meaningful way to support an organization that had become so important to all of them.

For the past several years, Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium has been proud to partner with the University of Nebraska-Omaha in leading Omaha’s STEM Ecosystem, a group comprised of schools and educators, businesses, nonprofits and other organizations from the greater Omaha community, that is dedicated to supporting and fostering collaboration between STEM learning opportunities, in order to ensure Omaha will meet the future goals for STEM talent in the workplace.