For a desert, Dubai’s got green covered.

In case you haven’t visited a real rainforest, the Green Planet Dubai offers you a chance to encounter wildlife so close that you can hear a macaw grind its food and be awed by a sloth’s yawn.

The bio-dome is made up of four floors all centered around the largest man-made 25m Kapok tree, reflecting a still from Avatar.

Christopher Davis, Green Planet’s head of operations, told Euronews,

It’s a slice of nature. Imagine a tropical rainforest in the Amazon, we’ve taken a cut out of that, brought it here to the middle of the desert. All the animals that you see here, the trees, the plants, butterflies, reptiles, you name it. All kinds of animals, from all over the world, and different rain forests.

What:

The Green Planet is funded by Dubai-based company Meraas, spanning across an area of 900sq meters. It comprises over 3,000 plants and animal species.

Where:

The Green Planet, City Walk Dubai

How much:

Tickets cost AED 95 for adults and AED 70 for children from 3 up to 12.

When:

10am to 12pm

Temperature

To mimic an actual rainforest supporting a diverse set of ecosystems, the humidity within the bio-dome is set to 70 percent and temperature fixed at 25 -28 degrees celsius.

Levels of Nature

Upon entering the indoor rainforest, you can encounter the Flooded Forest made up of a large aquarium with sea creatures like arowanas and stingrays.

The elevator leads visitors to the Canopy, the topmost level. Here’s where you get a bird’s eye view of the entire scale of the rainforest. You get to interact with a wide range of exotic birds such as the Giant Hornbill. Rogan who works at the Green Planet casually petting a rainbow boa, said,

The snakes are usually kept in our office. The rainforest doesn’t have any dangerous animals like snakes or crocodiles, but for safety sake visitors aren’t permitted to touch animals.

From the Canopy, the entire structure winds downward. Before moving to the next level, to get a breathtaking view of the entire forest you may want to walk the rope bridge.

Further down, you’ll see live animal exhibits located on the periphery of the pathway. These exhibits are of exotic animals like the hyacinth macaws, crocodile lizards, prehensile porcupines and more.

At the Midstory, visitors encounter various terrariums containing the Pacman frog, Atlas Bugs and more tropical species.

The last level called the Forest Floor is relatively quiet and darker than the floors above. This is where the sloth greets visitors, others like the golden conures say hello.

To see the majestic nocturnal prehensile tailed porcupines in action, plan your visit after 6pm.

Food for everyone

Unlike an actual rainforest wherein wildlife forage for themselves, at the Green Planet Dubai, most of the insects, birds and animals are fed fresh fruit by the staff.

The porcupines eat lettuce, carrots and watermelon, the sloth really loves watermelon

,

a guide told visitors.

Live classes

The Green Planet Dubai offers 15 educational programs across 5 topics for students to learn in an interactive environment. Programs are designed to align with objectives of the school curriculum. For further information about these live classes click here.

Tip

Tripods and selfi-sticks are not permitted within the rainforest. Neither is the use of flashes allowed for the safety of all animals.

For more information, check http://www.thegreenplanetdubai.com.

Don’t miss: Revealed: What Would Fascinate Picasso in Dubai? & Finally, A UAE EDM Radio Station: DANCE 97.8 FM