It's not exactly a shade structure, but that is one of its many functions. It is mainly for the elephants to browse from, and I don't think it would look very good if it was made of wood. Plus the elephants would probably gnaw on it and the structure would fall apart.
As far as re-inventing the wheel or zookeepers being lazy. They still have to go inside and attach the food then hoist it over for the animals to eat. Sure beats calling all the animals in and then going out and placing all the food out. Its much safer considering a staff member was killed accidentally at SDWAP by an elephant.
It also brings out other enrichment items such as barrels of hay and other items to destroy.
In my opinion, this exhibit just seems too rushed. Are the other animals even on exhibit yet?
Yes the exhibit has lots of enrichment and that's great for the elephants, but the other things matter also. With the budget that they had, they could have at least made those utilitrees more natural looking.
Most of the animals are out, the lion and jaguar exhibits aren't finished yet. The fencing needs to be put up and that's sort of important. Nigiri(sp?) is in the bedrooms of the Jaguar exhibit. The secretary bird is not acclimated to its exhibit yet and some of the animals for the pond they have aren't there yet. They must still be trying to catch some of them in the surrounding scrub... xD . The exhibit theme is pretty much a desert as they have lots of Californian or ancient plants in it. There aren't much shade trees to conceal anything. The plants are interesting but I'd say maybe a few more years to grow for some of the shrubs or short trees. Monkey trails was kind of barren when it started and now its really lush, so was Fern Canyon.
Nobody here has so far questioned if San Diego Zoo supports conservation or not. We all know that this particular zoo has its heart in the right place when it comes to conservation, exhibitry and breeding educating the public. So perhaps this is why we are so disappointed in this exhibit? Because it so completely falls short of what you normally would expect to see in SanDiego.
For the Lions and the Jaguars actually, there are bedrooms which you can view and bedrooms in back too. The jags can enter the exhibit from both. I'll get pictures up soon, just got to transfer them because my computer can't read the card so I have to use my parents...
So perhaps this is why we are so disappointed in this exhibit? Because it so completely falls short of what you normally would expect to see in SanDiego.
That's right. If they don't want to be judged by a higher standard, they should stop referring to themselves as "The World Famous San Diego Zoo." But this exhibit is too ugly for any modern zoo, not just SD.
