USZOOfan42
Well-Known Member
Not really, but there are at least 23 holdings in the US, mostly in the Midwest and the south.
San Diego Zoo Safari Park San Diego Zoo Safari Park News 2024
- Thread starter Kudu21
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RJB Wildlife
Well-Known Member
A couple updates from the park:
- The current Elephant viewing area will be closing on November 11th to make way for construction on the eastern yard. The service road viewing deck will be utilized as the new temporary viewing for the duration of the project and this will be a timed viewing as an employee will escort guests down at different times.
- I can confirm that two other Somali Wild Ass are indeed expecting making the total of offspring at three.
- Wild Holidays decorations are starting to be put up in the wake of the Autumn Festival.
- Two large climbing structures have been added to the Gorilla “bachelor pad” and Frank and Monroe are back in the space. There is speculation that there might a future experience that brings guests back to that space, however any other details are unknown.
- The debut of Jillian’s cub is expected to be late November, along the same timeline as Diana’s cubs.
- The goal for the opening date of the new Safari Experience Hub is the end of November.
- The current Elephant viewing area will be closing on November 11th to make way for construction on the eastern yard. The service road viewing deck will be utilized as the new temporary viewing for the duration of the project and this will be a timed viewing as an employee will escort guests down at different times.
- I can confirm that two other Somali Wild Ass are indeed expecting making the total of offspring at three.
- Wild Holidays decorations are starting to be put up in the wake of the Autumn Festival.
- Two large climbing structures have been added to the Gorilla “bachelor pad” and Frank and Monroe are back in the space. There is speculation that there might a future experience that brings guests back to that space, however any other details are unknown.
- The debut of Jillian’s cub is expected to be late November, along the same timeline as Diana’s cubs.
- The goal for the opening date of the new Safari Experience Hub is the end of November.
According to a newsletter sent to members via email, Barong the male Sumatran Tiger Cub and his mom Jillian have begun exploring Tiger Trail. No official time and date on how long they’ll be visible for guests but the photography Facebook group made a posting they should be out in the habitat this weekend 
What is the current Somali wild ass group look like (any info on individual animals like ...?)?
The Park has 2.7 adults and the 1.0 foal so far from this year. There are 0.5 + the foal on exhibit (with two of these mares due to foal before the end of the year), with the two stallions managed separately behind-the-scenes and the two additional mares being held temporarily behind-the-scenes while the foals are young.
A subset of the Park’s mixed vulture flock has moved into the old crane/stork exhibit immediately before the South Africa field exhibit lagoon along the Africa Tram. The new flock is comprised of three lappet-faced vultures, two Rüppell’s vultures, and one Cape vulture.
Unfortunately, the second greater kudu calf did not survive.
A second gerenuk calf has been born and is on exhibit with the herd in African Woods.
One of the female dik-diks has returned to exhibit (the second was shipped out), and a male has joined her for breeding.
Most of the Transcaspian urial herd has been removed from the Central Asia field exhibit and the male has been removed from the Mountain exhibit for breeding behind-the-scenes.
Any idea what the plan is here with the urial at San Diego?
They’re moving them behind-the-scenes to breed them. They’ve struggled in the past with parasites and high infant mortality from contraspecific aggression in the urial in the past, and the Park’s herd is one of the last purebred herds in the country, so they’re trying something different to get more successful lambs on the ground.
OK, thanks ... I really hope they can make a turn around!
Perhaps the Zoo might be a more conducive environment for breeding the urial under more controlled conditions?
Fingers crossed!
Honestly, the acres of assorted breeding, holding, and management yards behind-the-scenes at the Safari Park are as just as controlled of environments as the hillside yards at the Zoo, and that involves just moving them across the Park, not 30 miles down the highway.
Jonathan Petersson
Well-Known Member
The park's last female Barbary Deer passed away today. She was the last of her kind in the Western Hemisphere leaving behind a legacy for this species.
RJB Wildlife
Well-Known Member
A couple updates from the park:
- The new Elephant viewing area is now available. Groups of 15 will be allowed to view the Elephants from the service road patio viewing in 10 minute intervals.
- Barong, the Sumatran Tiger cub, has been out on habitat intermittently and rotated with Dumai the male this morning. It isn’t a guarantee he’s out in the opening hours.
- The Asian Savanna has been renamed Asian Fields on the new guide map.
- The Safari Experience Hub is also on the new guide map and appears nearly complete for the holiday season.
- The new Elephant viewing area is now available. Groups of 15 will be allowed to view the Elephants from the service road patio viewing in 10 minute intervals.
- Barong, the Sumatran Tiger cub, has been out on habitat intermittently and rotated with Dumai the male this morning. It isn’t a guarantee he’s out in the opening hours.
- The Asian Savanna has been renamed Asian Fields on the new guide map.
- The Safari Experience Hub is also on the new guide map and appears nearly complete for the holiday season.
A very sad epitaph and state of affairs for Barbary deer ex situ. Unsurprising with just one individual and thus functionally extinct within the North American continent.
It is not like the situation in situ is getting any better with climate change and the continued encroachment upon Juniper, ook or pine forests in the Magrhib (as well as the numerous forest fires ... like in major forest types now globally).
I really cannot phantom why a species of red deer that is threatened and endangered cannot find a safe haven in a few US zoos, let alone the San Diego Safari Zoo alone!
There is something truly not sound and unsettling about the current species management trends within the circle of AZA policy makers and the accredited zoos within the organisation to not achieve the objectives and mission for which they had set out to create conservation breeding ex situ projects (let alone aside from the mainstream SSP or Signature CB) in the first place.
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The ship, unfortunately, sailed a long time ago for the Barbary deer in North America. The last births (including those of the last individuals at San Diego and two of the three remaining animals in Berlin) were in 2005, so this was just a slow march to the inevitable. Prior to COVID, there were plans to establish an import station in Tunisia to boost the populations and genetic diversity of assorted North African ungulates in North American zoos (as well as serve as a waypoint for future reintroduction efforts for addax and scimitar-horned oryx), including not only addra and slender-horned gazelles, but also Barbary deer and Cuvier's gazelles, both of which are now entirely gone from collections in North America (although there might still be some Cuvier's gazelles in the private sector). Unfortunately, COVID tanked these plans, and they will very likely never be picked back up, unfortunately.
We will be very lucky to see any large exotic deer species remain in public collections in North America in the coming decades. As Chronic Wasting Disease spreads, more and more regulations on moving deer are coming into place, and it is becoming increasingly difficult, year on year, to move deer around the country.
Nile Hippo Expert
Well-Known Member
Would there also be increasing risk of a zoo herd contracting CWD and presumably that might necessitate quite an extensive cull? Or would it be unlikely to ever spread in a properly managed captive deer herd?
There would be a potentially increased risk to zoo herds if CWD spreads into the local deer population, yes. While, in theory, the zoo herds should be having minimal to no direct contact with wild deer or wild deer excrement, that is not always the case, and the prions that cause CWD have been proven to survive passage through the digestive systems of carrion-eating birds. As such, there is a chance for transmission via bird excrement, which is much more difficult to control. The actual likelihood of that happening is probably quite low, but it is possible. If a captive herd was to present with CWD, the whole herd would absolutely have to be culled, and I imagine quite extensive pasture mitigation would have to take place, as well.
Now that the hand-raised addra gazelle calf is full weaned, he has been moved behind-the-scenes from the lowland nyala exhibit at the Africa Tram loading station, so this species is no longer on display at the Park.
The new Safari Experience Hub opened over the weekend, so now all paid safaris will start and finish from the old monorail loading area.
There is some sort of construction going on in the old Barbary sheep exhibit between the Central Africa and South Africa field exhibits, that has most recently served as a temporary home for the greater kudu herd and the two bachelor Grevy's zebras (separately).
The new Safari Experience Hub opened over the weekend, so now all paid safaris will start and finish from the old monorail loading area.
There is some sort of construction going on in the old Barbary sheep exhibit between the Central Africa and South Africa field exhibits, that has most recently served as a temporary home for the greater kudu herd and the two bachelor Grevy's zebras (separately).
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