San Diego Zoo Elephant Odyssey

[djaeon]

Whats the acreage of the elephant exhibit again?

3 acres according to this article:

Room to roam

 

[djaeon]

3 acres according to this article:

Room to roam

Edit: I do think 2.5 acres is right. The article may have been rounding up. Anyway, between 2.5 & 3 acres

 

[Coquinguy]

american bison are quite closely related to the steppe bison which inhabiated Alaska's bering region alongside mammoth in the pleistocene era so their inclusion in odyssey is another interpretative opportunity.

 

[reduakari]

With yet another great tool from Google Earth, we can all virtually explore the San Diego Zoo and see just how truly awful "Elephant Odyssey" really is!" Click on the little yellow symbol in the upper left hand side of the screen, and take a "walk" through the zoo

Google Maps

 

[djaeon]

Or great, depending on opinion

 

[Ituri]

After virtually walking through it.... I will say this. There were a lot of "interesting" design choices made.

 

[Otter Lord]

With yet another great tool from Google Earth, we can all virtually explore the San Diego Zoo and see just how truly awful "Elephant Odyssey" really is!" Click on the little yellow symbol in the upper left hand side of the screen, and take a "walk" through the zoo

Google Maps

Woah, amazing. Any other zoos have that?

 

[mstickmanp]

Here is an article that talks about the zoo being "the first in the nation to be explorable on Google’s online street-view feature."

Online visitors can see S.D. Zoo - SignOnSanDiego.com

 

[ZappyAd]

With yet another great tool from Google Earth, we can all virtually explore the San Diego Zoo and see just how truly awful "Elephant Odyssey" really is!" Click on the little yellow symbol in the upper left hand side of the screen, and take a "walk" through the zoo

Google Maps

Irrespective of one's thoughts on the exhibit, being able to walk around via google earth is way cool!

 

[mweb08]

Some EO comments from that site:

The new elephant area would have been better if it included more elephants (we only saw three), although the new elephant facility is first rate. It is interesting to see the care facility machines and workings though.

The new Elephant Exhibit is fantastic. Spent a lot of time going through it.

The San Diego Zoo has recently unveiled a new jewel...the Elephant Odyssey. Spending in excess of $44 million dollars, the zoo spared no expense making this a wonderfully engaging and educational attraction. Our 4 year old son was in heaven----life sized Elephant sculptures (including at mommy & baby) interactive "x-ray" machine and a maze of elephant tracking collars made this exhibit fun and extremely relatable to small children. The only downside was a lack of shade on a hot Southern California day!

The new Elephant Odyssey is a mixed bag. I have to agree that the lion enclosure is a bit spartan, but it does get you as up close and personal as you'll probably ever get (except for the Lion Camp at the Wild Animal Park). I would hope that they rotate the lions through this exhibit as there is no privacy at all for the lions. And I had hoped the exhibit would get you closer to the elephants. With the exception of the "barn" area, you never really get an up close "wow" view. Ironically, the best views of the elephants are from the top deck of the tour bus. But the exhibit was better the 2nd time I saw it, so I'm hoping it will continue to improve. BTW this is the hottest part of the zoo, so get here early or just before sunset.

Must sees are the Elephant Odesey and the Panda Exhibit

The elephant exhibit is the best of its type.

While we definitely enjoyed seeing the elephants housed in such a spacious area, our entire pleasure at viewing the new exhibit was doused when we arrived at the "secondary" exhibit that housed the lions. We wanted to weep when we saw the majestic male lion, and his female mate, in the pathetic enclosure this new exhibit provides them. The poor animals have absolutely no privacy, as their den boasts a huge window for viewing. The outside enclosure itself is a joke....it provides so little room for these two creatures to move around in adequately and is smaller than the area the Zoo provides for much smaller creatures. It is also devoid of any interesting vegetation or other elements that would provide stimulation for these animals. What were they thinking when they created this compound, especially when they dedicated so much space, which was perhaps overkill, to the elephants????

Be sure to check out the elephant area where they show the trainers interacting (cleaning/feeding) the elephants up close.

The Elephant Odessy was especially well done; this is probably the best exhibit I've seen at a zoo (and I'm from St. Louis, which has a top notch facility!).