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Arizona Docent

What happened to the trees?

The trees in this sloth exhibit were twice as tall and full of leaves. For some reason, they hacked them in half. (I guess it was too lush to fit the barren theme of EO!). On the plus side, they have added a kirks dik dik to the exhibit (according to sign, I did not actually see it).
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Arizona Docent
The trees in this sloth exhibit were twice as tall and full of leaves. For some reason, they hacked them in half. (I guess it was too lush to fit the barren theme of EO!). On the plus side, they have added a kirks dik dik to the exhibit (according to sign, I did not actually see it).
 
Ituri
What in the world is Kirk's dik-dik supposed to relate to in prehistoric California. It sure is early for them to have totally given up on the theme already.
 
Arizona Docent
According to the sign, they are comparing the dik-dik to pleistocene pronghorn. Of course they have pronghorns later on, so I guess they are counting them twice. It is a huge stretch - I suppose they just thought it would be a good exhibit for a very small antelope and that was the best comparison they could come up with.

As bad as EO is (and it is bad), they have not even lived up to their own initial descriptions of it. Like how the guanacos and pronghorns and camels were supposed to be able to wander into the elephant yards. That has not happened. In fact, the camels are already gone. And how instead of the promised Przewalski wild horse, they now have a domestic pony and donkey. I really feel San Diego is going downhill.
 
R
Arizona Docent said:
According to the sign, they are comparing the dik-dik to pleistocene pronghorn. Of course they have pronghorns later on, so I guess they are counting them twice. It is a huge stretch - I suppose they just thought it would be a good exhibit for a very small antelope and that was the best comparison they could come up with.

As bad as EO is (and it is bad), they have not even lived up to their own initial descriptions of it. Like how the guanacos and pronghorns and camels were supposed to be able to wander into the elephant yards. That has not happened. In fact, the camels are already gone. And how instead of the promised Przewalski wild horse, they now have a domestic pony and donkey. I really feel San Diego is going downhill.
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More likely they had some "extra" dik dik and needed a cage to stick them in. That would be consistent with the zoo's recent "collection planning" (e.g. Arabian wildcats in Polar Bear Plunge, etc. etc.).

Does falling off a cliff count as "going downhill?"
 
Maguari
Always problem with having all these themed zones - you lose the ability to be flexible with animal holdings without undermining the whole exhibit.
 
O
Maguari said:
Always problem with having all these themed zones - you lose the ability to be flexible with animal holdings without undermining the whole exhibit.
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Very true, the zoo may have a problem with their Siberian Reindeer in Polar Bear Plunge soon because they only one left too.

Also the camels are still there, they probably were just off-exhibit when you went. I went and the horse wasn't on display and I was very joyful because of it.
 
mweb08
I don't think EO is bad at all, it's just not as good as it should be and will be outclassed by most of the other new elephant exhibits. I actually like the theme, but agree that the execution is not that good with some of the species selections and the lack of mixing the species with the elephants like they talked about. This is still the best zoo in N. America imo, but it may not hold onto that title for long unless they step it up with top notch future exhibits.

Conerning the tree, I'd bet that they wanted the sloth to be more visible to the public. Is that a bad thing?
 
Arizona Docent
mweb08 said:
Conerning the tree, I'd bet that they wanted the sloth to be more visible to the public. Is that a bad thing?
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Ironically, the two times I was there with the full trees, the sloth was unusually active and I got great pictures of it in the high branches. This time, with everything cut down and exposed, I still could not even see the sloth!
 

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