San Diego Zoo Safari Park dholes

Ituri

Ituri

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
The San Diego Zoo's website has updated maps posted for both the zoo and the park. The former lion exhibit in Cat Canyon next to the tigers is now listed as the future Chinese dhole exhibit.
 
Nice, that exhibit is big and the dholes will be a great addition to the park. I wonder where they will get the Dholes from.
 
Are the dholes on exhibit now? Im going out to San diego 1st wk of june and would love to see them. thks matt
 
And that huge beautiful exhibit remains empty. Personally I think they should put lions back in there (I mean a second group besides the ones at Lion Camp). Or what about african wild dogs?
 
They could go old school Wild Animal Park and import some Asian lions for it....
 
jusko88 said:
Do you think there waiting to put the dulled on exhibit when the new tiger exhibit opens?
Click to expand...

Considering that the dholes have been in San Diego for over a decade now it doesn't seem likely that they are putting them on exhibit at all.

It is also not clear if and when the new tiger exhibit will be built. The plans for the Asian exhibits at the Safari Park seem to be on indefinite hold while they attempt to convert the place to some kind of theme park with ziplines and very expensive personal safaris that replace the excellent all-access wildlife tours that they used to have with the monorail.
 
Sry idk what happened spelling typo. dulled I ment dholes. Thks David for responding. I just don't understand why they don't put them out. Let people see this special canid species. Don't they have like 9 dholes too at the safari park. If so why keep so many behind the scenes.
 
jusko88 said:
Sry idk what happened spelling typo. dulled I ment dholes. Thks David for responding. I just don't understand why they don't put them out. Let people see this special canid species. Don't they have like 9 dholes too at the safari park. If so why keep so many behind the scenes.
Click to expand...

I have wondered this also for a long time. Clearly they can be displayed successfully at other zoos. It mystifies me why San Diego keeps them off exhibit. Presumably they have a husbandry or behavioral reason of some kind.
 
Last edited:
From what I've read that their animals are extremely skittish and unlike other facilities with this species in North America, the park has a breeding group.

In regards to David's post about the park in general, the thing I find dismaying and frankly, insulting, is how the business model of the park has changed to where you are constantly bombarded with sales pitches for extremely expensive upcharge attractions.
 
Thank you for the information fkalltheway! I did not realize that there were other dholes in the US outside the Wilds and Minnesota. Good news to hear about the recent breeding efforts too.
 
It's viewable, but only a quarter of it or so. You won't actually see the animals.
 
As of my visit last week, they are still not visible and there is no timeline as to when or if they will be (based on conversations with a volunteer). As stated, the old tiger exhibit is not currently visible to the public. The end of the path (by new tigers) has a barricade saying future Asian plains and presumably at some point the path will be redone to add new Asian species and the dholes in the old tiger exhibit will be visible. This would also be nice because you would be able to walk from there to the lower part of the park without having to do a long backtrack into Nairobi Village as you do now.
 
Arizona Docent said:
As of my visit last week, they are still not visible and there is no timeline as to when or if they will be (based on conversations with a volunteer). As stated, the old tiger exhibit is not currently visible to the public. The end of the path (by new tigers) has a barricade saying future Asian plains and presumably at some point the path will be redone to add new Asian species and the dholes in the old tiger exhibit will be visible. This would also be nice because you would be able to walk from there to the lower part of the park without having to do a long backtrack into Nairobi Village as you do now.
Click to expand...

I wish they would do one of two things,either simply just connect the 2 ends of the park (as it is rather a pain to reach condor ridge and Tiger trail and then having to double all the way back),or connect the 2 ends and double Journey into Africa with a journey through the Asian plains,which I know all of us have been hoping for since the old monorail closed. I still think that should have been one of the first things they did instead of bombarding us with ziplines and adding more to Journey Into Africa (as much as I do like the little vulture exhibit and the wild ass exhibit). Now that I'm moving away I get the strangest feeling they'll finally do just that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top