USA TODAY 10Best
Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo is home to the Best Zoo Exhibit of 2022
Best Zoo Exhibit (2022)
A great zoo exhibit engages visitors with the animals they're observing while keeping the well-being and protection of its animals front and center.
- Devereaux Tiger Forest - Detroit Zoo
- Maniac the Giant Crocodile - Reptile Gardens
- Boyd Family Asian Trek - Zoo Knoxville
- California Trail - Oakland Zoo
- Toyota Elephant Passage - Denver Zoo
- Land of the Tiger - Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens
- Animal Care Center - Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
- Lied Jungle - Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo
- Rocky Mountain Wild - Cheyenne Mountain Zoo
- Asian Highlands - Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo
Photo courtesy of Roy Lewis
No. 10:
This exhibit at the Detroit Zoo provides a home to three endangered Amur tigers: Nikolai, Ameliya, and Kisa. The enclosure features naturalistic elements you might find in the tigers’ natural environment, including elevated vantage points, wooded areas, pools, open spaces, a cave, and a waterfall.
Photo courtesy of Joe Maierhauser
No. 9:
Reptile Gardens in Rapid City, South Dakota, hosts Maniac, an Australian male saltwater crocodile born in captivity in 1970. At his last measurement, he was 16 feet 2 inches long and weighed roughly 1,350 pounds! Maniac could live as old as 100 and has beautiful large armored scales across his back. You can only imagine what his appetite is! 10Best Travel Expert Kyle McCarthy tells us, “It’s fun to watch keepers feed the giant crocodile.”
Photo courtesy of Amy Smotherman Burgess // Zoo Knoxville
No. 8:
Zoo Knoxville’s Boyd Family Asian Trek "bridges the gap between curiosity and conservation." This beloved exhibit is home to Malayan tigers, white-naped cranes, silvered leaf langurs and white-handed gibbons. Guests can observe these species while climbing a multi-level tree house or walking across a swinging suspension bridge.
Photo courtesy of Steve Goodall
No. 7:
The California Trail at the Oakland Zoo invites visitors to investigate the role humans have played in shaping the ecology of the San Francisco Bay Area. This popular exhibit "highlights the delicate balance between plants, animals, and humans, and the impact of change on all three." While exploring the California Trail, keep an eye out for American bison, black bears, California condors, eagles, mountain lions, gray wolves, grizzly bears, and jaguars.
Photo courtesy of Denver Zoo
No. 6:
Denver Zoo hosts one of the most complex and most extensive elephant habitats in North America, with three distinct sections, each reflecting a different area of tropical Asia. The Toyota Elephant Passage offers ten acres of varied terrain and a unique multiple-species habitat where various animals roam with shade structures, swimming and bathing water, and mud wallows in abundance. Guests can travel the two miles of interconnected trails and explore an animal preserve, and Asian urban center, and an Asian rural village, learning about the significance of animals in Asian culture and their relationship with humans.
Photo courtesy of Jacksonville Zoo & Gardens
No. 5:
The Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens, which occupies more than 115 acres, is home to more than 2,000 animals from around the globe and 1,000 plants. While visiting, be sure to check out the beloved Land of the Tigers area. Land of the Tigers provides a home for Malayan and Sumatran tigers, free to roam through the Asia Loop on a series of trails. Guests can see these animals from almost any angle while enjoying the 2.5-acre exhibit.
Photo courtesy of Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
No. 4:
While Busch Gardens is most famously known as an amusement park filled with thrill rides, the Tampa location is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and offers abundant animal encounters as well. Not just home to the hit TV series, The Wildlife Docs®, The Animal Care Center at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay allows visitors to observe and even participate in the animal care experience, from "nutrition to treatments, X-rays to surgeries."
Photo courtesy of Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium
No. 3:
Guests at Omaha’s Henry Doorly’s Zoo can feel the tropical environment of rainforest as they walk through the Lied Jungle, America’s largest indoor rainforest. Squirrel monkeys, pigmy hippos, and macaws are a few of the many animals you will encounter as you travel along an elevated walkway and cross a suspension bridge to view the jungle below, then down to the forest floor where trees and waterfalls tower overhead. The exhibit, which opened in 1992, showcases rainforests from South America, Africa, and Asia.
Photo courtesy of Keri D // Cheyenne Mountain Zoo
No. 2:
Colorado wildlife is front and center at this exhibit at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs. The 3-acre exhibit is home to a moose wandering amid pine woods with his own small lake, mountain lions in a naturalistic rock canyon, the elusive Canada lynx, river otters playing in a waterfall and grizzly bears roaming the mountainside.
Photo courtesy of Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium
No. 1:
The Asian Highlands exhibit at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo begins with visitors entering beneath a replica Himalayan ruin and then traveling along a footpath that takes them through "the southern foothills of the Himalayans." Along their journey, visitors will observe Indian rhinos, sloth bears, red pandas, snow leopards and much more.
A panel of experts partnered with 10Best editors to pick the initial nominees, and the top 10 winners were determined by popular vote.
Congratulations to all these winning zoo exhibits!
About 10Best Readers' Choice Awards
Nominees are submitted by a panel of experts. 10Best editors narrow the field to select the final set of nominees for the Readers’ Choice Awards. Readers can vote once per category, per day. For any questions or comments, please read the FAQ or email USA TODAY 10Best.
The Experts
Debra Erickson
Debra Erickson is President of the International... Read More
Debra Erickson is President of the International Zoo Educators Association. She is also the Marketing Director for San Diego Zoo Global, Executive Director of Atlantis Blue Project Foundation and Accreditation Chair for Atlantis, Paradise Island. She has been in the conservation, interpretation, marketing, communications, and education fields for 30 years and has worked for the San Diego Zoo, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, Atlantis, Paradise Island, Atlantis, The Palm, SeaWorld San Diego, SeaWorld Orlando, S.E.A. Aquarium and Dolphin Island. Debra has held a wide variety of positions in the education and interpretation field including Education Director at San Diego Zoo Safari Park, SeaWorld Orlando, and Atlantis, Paradise Island. She has created interpretive plans for a wide variety of exhibits including Manatees: The Last Generation, Wild Arctic, and Tiger Trail which have all won the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums Top Exhibit Honors award. Currently she is leading the effort to provide San Diego Zoo Kids, a 24-hour, commercial-free television channel, to 300 children’s hospitals and Ronald McDonald Houses around the world. Having worked in over 40 countries during her career and seeing the challenges that many developing countries face, Debra has a keen commitment to conservation. She worked as Executive Director and Conservation Director for Orangutan Foundation International and was responsible for developing and implementing the conservation plan for Tanjung Puting National Park. Debra continues her conservation work through the Atlantis Blue Project Foundation where she funds marine conservation projects and mentors conservationists in the field. Debra received her B.A. in Biology from Scripps College and her M.A. in Educational Technology from San Diego State University.
Debra Erickson
Debra Erickson is President of the International Zoo Educators Association. She is also the Marketing Director for San Diego Zoo Global, Executive Director of Atlantis Blue Project Foundation and Accreditation Chair for Atlantis, Paradise Island. She has been in the conservation, interpretation, marketing, communications, and education fields for 30 years and has worked for the San Diego Zoo, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, Atlantis, Paradise Island, Atlantis, The Palm, SeaWorld San Diego, SeaWorld Orlando, S.E.A. Aquarium and Dolphin Island. Debra has held a wide variety of positions in the education and interpretation field including Education Director at San Diego Zoo Safari Park, SeaWorld Orlando, and Atlantis, Paradise Island. She has created interpretive plans for a wide variety of exhibits including Manatees: The Last Generation, Wild Arctic, and Tiger Trail which have all won the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums Top Exhibit Honors award. Currently she is leading the effort to provide San Diego Zoo Kids, a 24-hour, commercial-free television channel, to 300 children’s hospitals and Ronald McDonald Houses around the world. Having worked in over 40 countries during her career and seeing the challenges that many developing countries face, Debra has a keen commitment to conservation. She worked as Executive Director and Conservation Director for Orangutan Foundation International and was responsible for developing and implementing the conservation plan for Tanjung Puting National Park. Debra continues her conservation work through the Atlantis Blue Project Foundation where she funds marine conservation projects and mentors conservationists in the field. Debra received her B.A. in Biology from Scripps College and her M.A. in Educational Technology from San Diego State University.
Kyle McCarthy
Kyle McCarthy is the co-founder and editor of... Read More
Kyle McCarthy is the co-founder and editor of Family Travel Forum, the trusted resource for family vacation planners since 1996. FTF’s award-winning publications: MyFamilyTravels.com, America’s Most Popular Family Vacations and The Family Vacationist e-newsletter provide destination reviews, tips and seasonal roundups for all aspects of travel. Ms. McCarthy, author of a dozen Frommer’s guidebooks, also contributes to US News, CNN and other publications. She can be found on most social networks @familytravelforum.
Kyle McCarthy
Kyle McCarthy is the co-founder and editor of Family Travel Forum, the trusted resource for family vacation planners since 1996. FTF’s award-winning publications: MyFamilyTravels.com, America’s Most Popular Family Vacations and The Family Vacationist e-newsletter provide destination reviews, tips and seasonal roundups for all aspects of travel. Ms. McCarthy, author of a dozen Frommer’s guidebooks, also contributes to US News, CNN and other publications. She can be found on most social networks @familytravelforum.
10Best Editors
USA TODAY 10Best provides users with original,... Read More
USA TODAY 10Best provides users with original, unbiased and experiential travel coverage of top attractions, things to see and do, and restaurants for top destinations in the U.S. and around the world.
10Best Editors
USA TODAY 10Best provides users with original, unbiased and experiential travel coverage of top attractions, things to see and do, and restaurants for top destinations in the U.S. and around the world.
