• A single pond in Brazil can sustain a greater variety of fish than are found in all of Europe's rivers.
• A 25-acre plot of rainforest in Borneo may contain over 700 species of trees – a number equal to the total tree diversity of North America.
• A single rainforest reserve in Peru is home to more species of birds than the entire United States.
• More than half of the world's estimated 10 million species of plants, animals and insects live in the tropical rainforests, which cover only 7 percent of the earth’s land surface.

You try to imagine the sounds and sights and smells of such a rich place. A place like the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve of Monteverde, Costa Rica, where there are more than 100 species of mammals, over 400 species of birds (including 30 kinds of hummingbirds), tens of thousands of insect species (over 5000 species of moths), and 2,500 species of plants (including 420 kinds of orchids). The image eludes you, so you check your savings account balance, fantasizing about a guided tour through this rainforest’s canopy along the Sky Trek system of trails and suspension bridges. You slowly return to reality.

If a trip to one of the world’s tropical rainforests is not within your immediate grasp, consider venturing to Topeka, Kansas, or Omaha, Nebraska, instead. That’s right, the Midwest. The Topeka Zoological Park offers the Tropical Rainforest exhibit, enclosed within a 100-foot dome. Built in 1974, it served as a prototype for many of the nation's tropical exhibits. The Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha offers the Lied Jungle exhibit, the world’s largest indoor tropical rainforest. Situated on 1.5 acres, the exhibit uses 60,000 square feet of viewing space that rises to a height of 80 feet. Both the Tropical Rainforest and the Lied Jungle feature animal and plant species native to the Asian, African and Central/South American rainforests being portrayed. Species such as the giant Indian fruit bat, Asian small clawed otter, Malayan tapir, Philippine crocodile, great hornbill and orchid in Asia; red ruffed lemur, goliath heron (see photo to left), red crested touraco, fiddle leaf fig tree and African sausage tree in Africa; and cotton-topped tamarin, two toed sloth (see photo below), scarlet ibis, acouchi, queen palm and bromelid in Central/South America. Trails and suspension bridges move you through the layers – forest floor, understory and canopy – of these lush and natural looking rainforest settings, while the streams, pools and waterfalls are reminders of the 80 to 400 inches of rain that fall annually in rainforests. Costa Rica it may not be, but you won’t need a malarial shot to visit these rainforests.

While you’re at the "World Famous Topeka Zoo," don’t leave without seeing the following exhibits: Discovering Apes (with its first-of-a-kind glass tunnel that puts you among the Western lowland gorillas), Birds of Prey (in 1970, this zoo was the first to have endangered American Golden Eagles successfully hatch and raise a chick in captivity; 50 more eagle chicks have been raised since then), Animals and Man (houses the zoo’s megavertebrates, along with some smaller animal species), and Black Bear Woods (American black bears and red foxes in a naturalistic setting). And a trip to the Henry Doorly Zoo would not be complete without also experiencing the following highlights: Scott Kingdom of the Seas Aquarium (puffins, penguins, living coral, leafy sea dragons and much more, including a 70-foot-long tunnel surrounded by an aquarium on three sides), Wild Kingdom Pavilion (a "living classroom" featuring most of the zoo’s reptile collection and a large number of invertebrates, not to mention oddities like the elephant shrew), Cat Complex and Bear Canyon (home to clouded leopards, jaguars, polar bears and others), and Lozier IMAX Theater.