San Diego Zoo Review - 9.5 hours (Zoo/Aquarium #26 on the road trip)
This is the best zoo in North America. The world famous San Diego Zoo is the obvious choice as the #1 zoo (in my humble opinion) while the Bronx Zoo is clearly the #2 zoo. After that I'm going to abstain from creating a top ten list just yet, partly because it's such a difficult propostion and partly not to gain any enemies on this website. Hahaha.
It's true that comparing northern zoos to southern zoos is like comparing apples to oranges, but people rank everything from movies, music albums and travel destinations all the time and so why not zoos? Visting a northern zoo like the Bronx means that one has to rush to fit everything in within the 7 hour time limit, while at San Diego no one has to leave the grounds until 9 p.m. in the summer and the animals are visible year-round. Literally hundreds and hundreds of animals in northern zoos never once spend time outdoors, as there are 7-8 pavilions littering zoo grounds and huge sections of the zoo are completely shut down to the public in winter. The Bronx Zoo closes its almost 40-acre Asian monorail section, and a species like the giraffe can spend weeks locked inside a tiny barn in the offseason. At San Diego giraffes are outside for hours longer every day, and barring a freak snowstorm have 365 days a year to enjoy the sunshine. Is San Diego aided considerably by the tropical weather? You bet, and that is a major reason why the zoo is so darn enjoyable. Everything is outdoors, there is natural substrate in probably 100% of the exhibits, and the animal collection is staggeringly awesome.
The Best:
Botanical Garden - the zoo is a lushly planted paradise, with massive palm trees around each and every corner. Some of the aviaries are so gorgeous that I almost didn't want to walk through them and spoil the eden-like ambience that has been created. I forgot just how beautiful this zoo really is, and from the "skyfari" ride it appears as if ants are milling around in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. The best looking zoo in North America.
Monkey Trails and Forest Tales - best zoo in North America for primates. There are 9 species of monkey, at least 4-5 Bornean bearded pigs, clouded leopards, flamingos, Visayan warty pigs, reptiles, birds around every corner, fishing cats, and everything else that is wonderful about dense jungles. This multi-acre set of exhibits was opened to the public in 2005 and is arguably the best part of the zoo. I'd take the natural substrate, huge mesh exhibits and stunning boardwalks and mazelike walkways over "Jungleworld" or "Tropicworld" any day of the week. The pygmy hippo/wolf's guenon enclosure is magnificent, and the adjoining slender-snouted crocodile pool is equally brilliant. Primates are everywhere at this zoo, and with 3 separate species of colobus monkey and probably more than 25 different primates around the zoo San Diego is clearly a monkey heaven! There are even 3 different species of loris that are all off exhibit.
Ituri Forest - another amazing set of mixed-species exhibits. Allen's swamp monkeys, Schmidt's spot-nosed guenons, spotted-neck otters, red river hogs, western forest hog and forest buffalo (didn't see these) in gorgeous back-to-back enclosures. The river hippo pool is awesome, the okapi paddock (with 3 on view) is almost completely placed in shade from the massive surrounding trees, and if I complained about some of the sightlines I'd be nitpicking a fantastic, award-worthy, 4-acre set of exhibits.
Gorilla Tropics - the gorillas have a hugely scenic exhibit, with cascading waterfalls and pools of water around one of the edges. The bonobo habitat is even better, with loads of different natural surfaces for the apes to clamber over. Colobus monkeys, snakes and other animals dot the landscape around these ape enclosures, and everything is fantastic to see up close and personal.
Birds - best zoo in North America for birds. Scripps Aviary has over 130 birds and is a thick, dense, jungle-like aviary that has multiple boardwalks cruising through it. Owens Aviary (200 bird species) and Parker Aviary are almost as staggeringly immense, and the 23 Australiasian Aviaries offer up a diverse collection of birds that is unmatched anywhere in the Western Hemisphere. There is a small kiwi house, a set of hornbill aviaries, some of the largest bird of prey aviaries on the planet, a couple of flamingo pools with various other waterfowl, and then seemingly an aviary around every nook and cranny of the zoo. My wife and I aren't even huge bird fans, but the collection is vast and basically unbeatable outside of the Jurong Bird Park in Singapore.
Giant Panda Research Station - 4 giant pandas, with 3 on view and the fertile father in the back room. The National Zoo in Washington DC clearly has the best giant panda enclosures in North America, and San Diego, Atlanta and Memphis are far behind in terms of space and variability. However, kudos must go to San Diego for having attendants there to keep everyone quiet, and the crowd members who are noisy are told off and asked to be hushed up. Nice and quiet crowd, and even after seeing pandas at 4 different zoos in the past couple of months it was still a thrill to see the one-year old baby sleeping in a tree.
Reptiles - best zoo in North America for reptiles. The reptile house is the solitary animal building on the property, but it has wide open hallways and contains a fantastic set of cold-blooded animals. The reptile mesa at the back is simply awesome, with a huge gharial pool, loads of iguanas and other lizards, and at least 10-12 enormous galapagos tortoises in a few huge paddocks.
Polar Bear Plunge - second best zoo in North America for polar bears, naturally after Detroit. After seeing half decent polar bear exhibits in both Toledo and Memphis, I think that San Diego's is the second best. The 3 bears have a huge pool that slopes into a very deep section, a patch of grass, a digging box, and lots of logs and tree stumps to play around with. There isn't a ton of substrate in this exhibit, but it's still good enough for the #2 slot on the continent. There is an arabian wild cat and a caracal in two small wire cages, reindeer and diving arctic ducks in other enclosures, and naturally a whole whack of other bird aviaries. The rest of the enclosures doesn't really go well with the bears, but San Diego is famous for tossing animals together that don't always fit perfectly.
Tiger River - this set of enclosures was utterly mind-blowing in the evening, as the sun disappeared in the thick jungle foliage along the pathways and the 3 malayan tapirs were all in the water at once in their deep pool. It was difficult to find the male malayan tiger outside (the female and 3 cubs were off exhibit after noon) and the fishing cat had a nice wide pool with fish in it. Small crocodiles, more aviaries, a huge python and other animals are found here. The old loris exhibit now contains a handful of Asian bird species.
Absolutely Apes - the orangutans and siamangs interact well, but still spend too much time on the ground. This exhibit worked better for me than my other visit in 2006, perhaps because the viewing window is absolutely massive, the apes appear to always be active and not interrupted by the humans staring at them, and the uniqueness of the enclosure. It dips down a hill at the back, and there are loads of soft substrate spread around the front of the enclosure.
Aussie Animals - at least 12 koalas, 4-5 goodfellows tree kangaroos, at least 10 or more parma wallabies, a pair of wombats, etc, all make this one of the top 5 zoos in North America for Australian creatures.
East African Kopje - klipspringers, rock hyrax and dwarf mongooses all interacting for the cameras. An old but near perfect collection of rocks and boulders.
Sun Bear Forest - sun bears, lion-tailed macaques, tropical birds and Gabriella's crested gibbons (these are difficult to see through glass) in a nicely winding trail.
The Average/Worst:
Bear, Panda & Cat Canyons - the grottoes containing grizzly bears, lions, spotted hyenas, striped hyenas, an elderly spectacled bear and small-clawed otters are all needing a bulldozer, but are actually much more spacious and well-planted than most other grottoes out there in the zoo world. Even San Diego's ancient grottoes are better than anyone else's!! The cat canyon wire cages containing mountain lions, jaguars, snow leopards, siberian lynx and an extremely rare north chinese leopard are all thick with foliage but ultimately disappointing. The leopard and one of the snow leopards were both pacing badly.
Elephant Mesa - identical to what is was in 2006. Two Asian and one African elephant in the middle paddock, giraffes, an indian rhino, guanacos, a couple of Baird's tapirs, a pair of giant anteaters and some lowland anoa all make this place home for now.
Elephant Odyssey - Horn and Hoof Mesa is extinct, and that probably knocked an hour of time from the more than 9 hours that we spent at the zoo. The next time I visit will be an 11-12 hour day!!! There is nothing much to see yet as everything is closed off to the public, but the plans that are posted on huge placards look quite impressive. Apparently the response to the changes has been overwhelming, at least according to a poll that has been posted on a sheet of paper in the area. Rather than sterile paddocks with nothing but deer and antelope, there will be elephants, jaguars, condors, guanaco, tapirs, sloths, lions, etc in brand-new, larger exhibits. Hardcore zoo fans might bemoan the fact that the Horn & Hoof mesa is obsolete, but the big question now is what will happen to the ancient Elephant Mesa? I couldn't find out anything, even though most if not all the animals will be gone by spring 2009. Are they bulldozing this section for the next huge renovation? I certainly hope so.
Children's Zoo - weakest area of the zoo for me, particularly after visiting some really cool, interactive kid zoos. Here the cages for a serval, spider monkeys, a fennec fox, a red panda, a porcupine, naked mole rats, an echidna, etc are all terrible, even though some of those animals are used in shows. This area needs to be freshened up, even though the small insect section if quite well done.
Overall:
The San Diego Zoo is head and shoulders above any other zoo in North America, and is obviously regarded as being one of the best if not the best zoo on the planet. The Bronx Zoo for me is a brilliant institution with fantastic exhibits that ultimately slots into second place in my personal rankings. The lushly planted gardens, tropical weather and collection of animals at San Diego (that allows most of them a huge amount of unlimited time in their exhibits) all contributes to the overall visitor experience. Northern zoos simply cannot compare to San Diego, specifically when animals are locked in night quarters in the late afternoon or not even on view in the off season.
The zoo is the best in North America for birds, the best for its botanical garden grounds, the best for reptiles, the best for bear exhibits, the best for primates, and probably amongst the top categories for just about everything else possible. Combined with the nearby Wild Animal Park this 1-2 punch surely tops any other captive wildlife experience in the world, and the only real low points at the zoo are the children's area, the various canyons, and the soon to be emptied elephant mesa. Some folks have criticized a selection of the exhibits in San Diego, but in my humble opinion the vast majority of the enclosures are better than anything at almost any other North American zoo. Is there a "Congo Gorilla Forest" or "Arctic Ring of Life" here? No there isn't, but just about everything else that anyone could want in a zoo is found in sunny San Diego.
