off-exhibit hillside

From near the west Skyfari terminal you can look over the wall and see these huge hillside hoofstock yards. Note two deer on far right middle and two gazelles on far right bottom. For as long as I can remember, they have had these massive yards with no visitor access.

You can see the off of the EO exhibit too, I noticed Takins by the fence and realized they had enclosures there.

It was called back in the day "The Goat Turn Around" I don't recall a day that it was open, but I'm pretty sure there was visitor access at one point.

Ituri said:

It was called back in the day "The Goat Turn Around" I don't recall a day that it was open, but I'm pretty sure there was visitor access at one point.

Click to expand...

Once upon a time it was open to the public, and was a kind of Nirvana for obscure/rare hoofstock fans. Cretean Wild Goats, Serow, Goral, Moose, Caucasian Tur, Ibex, Himalayan Tahr, Altai Wapiti, Blue Sheep, Rocky Mountain Goats and for a while wolves were among the inhabitants of these steep and huge exhibits. A large Pheasant aviary was also built along the road leading to the turnaround (I think it's still there, but closed to the public).

That list gets me salivating....

Ituri, you are not alone, as a hoofstock buff i am also salivating reading that list

reduakari said:

Once upon a time it was open to the public, and was a kind of Nirvana for obscure/rare hoofstock fans. Cretean Wild Goats, Serow, Goral, Moose, Caucasian Tur, Ibex, Himalayan Tahr, Altai Wapiti, Blue Sheep, Rocky Mountain Goats and for a while wolves were among the inhabitants of these steep and huge exhibits. A large Pheasant aviary was also built along the road leading to the turnaround (I think it's still there, but closed to the public).

Click to expand...

When was the last time that this area was open to the public ? (Ie. what year) ? Also do you know species of Serow, Ibex, and Goral were here ? or wether the Caucasian tur were West or East ?

Here is some more info I found out about the this off exhibit hoofstock area:

This is what was there in 1973

Altai wapiti (Cervus canadensis sibiricus)
Roosevelt elk (Cervus canadensis roosvelti)
Vietnamese sika deer (Cervus nippon pseudaxis)
Cretan wild goat (Capra aegagrus cretica)
West caucasian tur (Capra caucasica)
Tadjik markhor (Capra falconeri heptneri)
Himalayan tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus)
And
European mouflon (Ovis orientalis musimon)

And these are the species that were in this area in 1989

MacNeills deer (Cervus elaphus macneilli)
White lipped deer (Przewalskium albirostris)
And
Northern white tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus borealis)

This is just speculation, but I think the Marsh deer that the San Diego Zoo imported from the Berlin Zoo were in this section too, I say that because those Marsh deer never made it on exhibit

That area is gigantic and only one of multiple off-display areas for hoofstock around the zoo. Recently the zoo has held Chinese ghoral, Japanese serow, bighorn sheep, and various varieties of gazelle, oryx, and deer back there, along with many smaller species. I’ve been desperately trying to get a tour of that area for some time. You can survey the area on Google Earth/Google Maps and in the latest image (taken slightly before the opening of Australian Outback) you can clearly see some gazelles or pronghorn and a buck of some kind with a large rack out in the open, along with multiple new paddocks constructed and some in preparation.