So I'm now back in the promised land of Southern California. I went to the Wild Animal Park yesterday and checked out the Elephants with the new viewing area and gate. Pics will be up soon.
The new viewing area really completes the exhibit. It is set up right in front of the pool and the entire exhibit slopes down there. So you can see the elephants and the rock structures above. I always felt like the other viewing areas of the north habitat seemed like an afterthought because of the odd-angles of the exhibit's topography. Now the elephants are set up perfectly above the eyes of the viewer with the pool down below and the trees behind make a nice background. Viewing of the southern, old Asian elephant exhibit is also adequate.
The new gate also really helps the zoo with their elephant care. Its width is just right for the elephants so they are not trying to squeeze in to it. The plantings around it will also grow to block part of the viewing of it and the new gate is not that visually obstructive already. The park has a lot of space around the elephants that it could use in the future. Tembo station is not in use and the picnic grove could be renovated into new exhibits. The new tiger exhibit will add another attraction to the Condor ridge and Elephant area as well.
On the topic of the new tiger exhibt, I was surprised when I discovered some displays put up for the it. There were several displays put up in the conifer forest with a map on each and they were all numbered showing renders of what the area would look like. I thought it was pretty cool because the park or zoo hasn't done that before in any of the past exhibits. It was actually an adventure to find all the displays, though I could not find the last one. It may have been by the overlook of the old lion exhibit, now that I think about it.
TigerExhibit_overlay | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
So I have photos of the display on my flickr account. I also took the plan out of my pictures and put it over a satellite picture of the area from google maps. So you guys can get an idea of where the new exhibit is.
If you have trouble figuring it out, I'm doing a review here to help explain it.
As you walk off from the bridge leading to the elephants, instead of a coniferous forest you will enter the new area through a bamboo forest. The path the right will take you past the elephants and straight to the old lion-overlook, which creates the border of the habitat. Among the bamboo forest there will be several paths circulating through it with some tiger sculptures. Eventually you will enter an aviary with Chinese Water Deer and Manchurian Cranes. A bridge will go over the animals and it seems there is a small bamboo-like bridge (check picture) that goes around the aviary as well. Peafowl may be in the aviary, or they maybe be free-roaming in the bamboo forest, I am not sure.
When you walk out of the aviary you arrive at the tigers, with viewing being through a waterfall and the tigers will be below. This is the first tiger habitat and it slopes downward to the southern path. There will be more viewing past the waterfall through a screen. Next there is a glass viewing area of the second habitat that has terraced rice-paddies in it. This exhibit slopes down to another viewing area below. Next the path will loop around some reptile exhibits with sailfin lizards, pythons, monitors, and vipers. Then you will approach the third habitat which has the old lion exhibit behind it or the exhibit will overlap a little with the old lion habitat. This exhibit will have a pool with possible some underwater viewing of the tigers, but not very deep. Finally the exhibit will end at the old lion overlook, which has been turned into an Asian village. There will be tiger bedrooms here and keeper facilities. Tigers will be able to switch from each of the three exhibits through glass tunnels. A training wall similar to the polar bears will be at the southern viewing area of the second exhibit.
Now for my personal take- The site for this exhibit seems old because of the old coniferous forest there. The park has lots of other undeveloped land around the tigers like the area along the monorail and suspension bridge which may have been better. Many of the coniferous trees will have to be moved and some be incorporated into the design, but this may be unrealistic because conifers aren't a characteristic of South East Asia rainforests. Also, the area is situated on a hill with viewing of the exhibits from below and above. The top views of the exhibit may be difficult because new immersion exhibits recommend viewing below the animals instead of looking down on them. This means a lot of cross views of other people may occur as well. It appears that the exhibit may have a terrace near the viewing areas on the top, so those views can be blocked with foliage. Plantings in the exhibit and around it will be the key to making the whole area work.
The exhibits may also be on the small size. All the exhibits are about 1/2-3/4 the size of the usable space of lion camp, but there are 3 exhibits and Sumatran tigers are the smallest of tigers and don't live in family groups like lions. The exhibits look like the be slightly larger than the tiger exhibits of Cat Forest in the OKC Zoo. It appears that their is not a lot of mock rock in the area so that may or may not be plus depending on how its used. What I am anticipating the most is probably the aviary with the deer and cranes and also the reptile exhibits. San Diego does very good with both types of exhibits. Manchurian cranes and sailfin lizards are probably the two species of my interest that I am looking forward to seeing in new habitats.
