There are zoos in some surprising and off-the-beaten-path places that have features the "big guys" can't match. If you want to see the country's best exhibits of North American animals, you need to travel to rural North Carolina. If desert critters are your thing, head for Arizona. And the world's largest indoor rainforest isn't in the Amazon, it's in Nebraska!

Here are five "offbeat zoos" that will reward the journey.

Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo - Omaha, Nebraska

Nebraska is an unlikely place to find one of America's top three zoos, the Henry Doorly Zoo, a place with a reputation for creating exhibits that are the biggest and best of their kind.

For example, the magnificent Lied Jungle is the world's largest indoor rainforest. Inside this 80-foot-tall, 1½-acre conservatory, more than 2,000 plants make the nearly 100 animal species (and human visitors) feel they're in a real jungle, one that is toured from both above and from the jungle floor. The Asian section includes small-clawed otters, gibbons, clouded leopards, and Malayan tapirs, some seen from a slippery swaying suspension bridge behind a waterfall. Africa includes lemurs, blue monkeys, and a pygmy hippo pool. South America has tapirs, otters, vampire bats, enormous Amazonian fish, macaws, and more monkeys.

Another great climate-controlled exhibit is the Desert Dome, underneath the world's largest geodesic dome. Deserts of three continents are realistically recreated. Around a big red sand dune, Africa's Namib Desert hosts serval cats, meerkats, rock hyraxes, and many birds. After a cave filled with deadly snakes, visitors encounter a miniature version of Australia's Ayers Rock, with rock wallabies and various Aussie birds exhibited around it. Representing America's Sonoran Desert, a herd of peccary wild pigs with pumas behind them is a stunning sight. Hummingbird Canyon has many fast-flying hummers. A sloping habitat is a children's delight, with many desert cottontails and jackrabbits.

Under the deserts, Kingdoms of the Night is the world's largest and best nocturnal exhibit. Clever lighting keeps animals visible, while it's dark enough to feel you're in their nighttime world. In one section, over 2,400 stalactites hang from above, while thousands of fruit bats flutter behind a harp wire barrier. Other fascinating creatures include naked mole-rats, cat- like fossas, aardvarks, armadillos, and Japanese giant salamanders. While on the swamp habitat's boardwalk, visitors see beavers, bullfrogs, and alligators -- including a beautiful white alligator. An interesting glass-fronted exhibit mixes raccoons with small alligators.

Scott Aquarium, the best aquarium in any USA zoo, features a glass-fronted penguin habitat with real manmade snow, an impressively-large octopus tank, jellyfish, and a 70-foot- long glass tunnel surrounded by sharks.

New in 2008, the Butterfly and Insect Pavilion has a thousand colorful butterflies flying around guests. Gorilla Valley and Orangutan Forest bring these popular apes within a few feet of their human visitors, especially from large bubble windows. The aging Cat Complex is the largest feline building in North America, with nine types of cats, including white Bengal tigers. Bear Canyon hosts four bear species in rocky grottoes. The screened-in Simmons Free Flight Aviary is among the world's largest walk-through aviaries. African animals displayed include giraffes, okapis, cheetahs, elephants, and rhinos, near the popular sea lion pool. Dairy World, the children's area, features America's only exhibit of raccoon dogs from Japan. The zoo also has one of the longest zoo train rides.