It is always said that in nature klipspringers lives in pairs and both sexes defend their territorium. But on the photo are 3 ones. Is it pair with its offspring or they permanently live three individuals together in one enclosure?
This was the first exhibit built at San Diego after they brought in Jones and Jones (of Woodland Park Zoo fame) to consult on a master plan for the zoo. It remains the best exhibit built since that time at San Diego--unlike all subsequent projects (with the partial exceptions of Tiger River and to some extent the gorilla exhibit), in that the rockwork actually does a good job of representing real geology (as opposed to the crappy "mock rock" seen almost everywhere else in the zoo), great care was taken with sightlines, smaller, geographically-appropriate animal exhibits were integrated, plantings were well-thought out and representative of an African kopje landscape, and "theme-park" details are not to be found (no "African-thatched" churro stand or panda tee-shirt shop etc.). If hyraxes are no longer included, that is a shame because the mix of species was another reason for the success of the Kopje.
22 years ago when this opened San Diego seemed poised to become the world's best zoo--not just because of their collection and their self-promotion, but because they were going to develop truly cutting edge exhibits. Oh well...take one look at Elephant Odyssey to see how far their standards have fallen
Regardless of ones opinion on the Elephant exhibit, the rest of EO(other than the horse) is very good and shouldn't be ignored when discussing that exhibit. Monkey Trails is great imo. Tiger River, the great ape exhibits, Ituri Forest, the polar bear exhibit, raptor exhibits, and the aviaries are all very good as well. There's a few other good monkey exhibits as well, plus the childrens zoo and reptile mesa has some good things too.
I can certainly complain about certain things in all of those exhibits, but I think that's a very strong core of exhibits that few can compete with.
Forgive me for speaking out of turn, but I believe reduakari's point was, what the zoo could have been had it followed through with the same level of detail and accuracy achieved by the African Kopje exhibit.
While I personally will agree with you that the exhibits your mentioned are good. I would agree with reduakari that they certainly do not live up to the high standards of the African Kopje.
Forgive me for speaking out of turn, but I believe reduakari's point was, what the zoo could have been had it followed through with the same level of detail and accuracy achieved by the African Kopje exhibit.
While I personally will agree with you that the exhibits your mentioned are good. I would agree with reduakari that they certainly do not live up to the high standards of the African Kopje.
It's a lot easier to get that level of detail in a small exhibit that should have a lot of tall rocks(therefore keeping the opposite side of the exhibit out of site) than it is an elephant exhibit which can be viewed from most of it's surrounding area. That is a point that I think people need to recognize.
I think some of the exhibits I mentioned do live up to those standards, especially when being realistic concerning the point I just made.
Regardless of ones opinion on the Elephant exhibit, the rest of EO(other than the horse) is very good and shouldn't be ignored when discussing that exhibit. Monkey Trails is great imo. Tiger River, the great ape exhibits, Ituri Forest, the polar bear exhibit, raptor exhibits, and the aviaries are all very good as well. There's a few other good monkey exhibits as well, plus the childrens zoo and reptile mesa has some good things too.
I can certainly complain about certain things in all of those exhibits, but I think that's a very strong core of exhibits that few can compete with.
No question most of the exhibits you mention are "good," some even very good. But when a zoo has the resources, collection and climate of San Diego--and is held by many to the the standard-bearer for all zoos globally--it is really not enough to do "good" exhibits when greatness is possible. The Kopje hinted that such excellence was going to be the hallmark of future exhibits at the zoo--history has proven that wrong, unfortunately.
No question most of the exhibits you mention are "good," some even very good. But when a zoo has the resources, collection and climate of San Diego--and is held by many to the the standard-bearer for all zoos globally--it is really not enough to do "good" exhibits when greatness is possible. The Kopje hinted that such excellence was going to be the hallmark of future exhibits at the zoo--history has proven that wrong, unfortunately.
I would say very good in regards to most of the exhibits I mentioned. Actually I did say very good in the first place.
As I said, greatness, at least for a guy with your standards and preferences is much easier to achieve in an exhibit like the kopje.
San Diego also has many limitations despite all of what it has going for it. Space and the amount of animals that must fit into that space is obviously one of them. Another is the fact that it's an old zoo with many warts and an ingrained layout which means they don't have the ability to plan things out perfectly like a newer zoo or one with a lot of unused space might be able to do. I also think the bus system causes problems with their layout and the way they have to design bigger exhibits such as EO. They not only have to plan for walking guests to view exhibits, but they have to make sure the bus viewers can as well which can affect sight lines, amount of space for animals, and the distance between exhibits on each side of the road. That's a personal pet peeve of mine, but I realize why they have it.
Like I said before, there are certain things in each exhibit that can be better, and there are some things that I would have done differently, but I do think it's a great zoo as a whole, the majority of exhibits since Kopje are at least very good, and while I can understand(and even share) some disappointment with some things, I don't think there should be near the negativity regarding the zoo that I see from some on here.
