Okay, this really bugs me. One of the best exhibits ever developed at either of the San Diego facilities (designed by a respected consultant, NOT in-house, I should note), has fallen victim to the ubiquitous San Diego "stick random animals wherever" syndrome. Condor Ridge has (had) a very good message and focus on native Southwestern US species, and they ruin it by throwing in a very interesting but entirely inappropriate South American rainforest animal.
Okay, this really bugs me. One of the best exhibits ever developed at either of the San Diego facilities (designed by a respected consultant, NOT in-house, I should note), has fallen victim to the ubiquitous San Diego "stick random animals wherever" syndrome. Condor Ridge has (had) a very good message and focus on native Southwestern US species, and they ruin it by throwing in a very interesting but entirely inappropriate South American rainforest animal.
This is quite weird...why not put the pacas in the Hidden Jungle area? The only way this remotely makes sense is if Condor Ridge is expanding it's theme WAY south to include Andean condors, and even then rainforest species don't fit really.
One species that bothers me at the park (even though they are extremely entertaining to watch) is the red-cheeked gibbon exhibit. Visitors stroll through Safari Base Camp and Nairobi Village, then up to the Great Rift Lift elevator, and onwards towards the African Woods, African Outpost and African Plains areas...and how many zoo visitors would be able to say that red-cheeked gibbons do not come from Africa?
Also called Gabriella's crested gibbon, and they are found at both the zoo and safari park. Are they also known as buff-cheeked gibbons? To be honest gibbon identification can be a bit of a nightmare as so many of the species look remarkably similar.
There are feasible options for this exhibit if black-footed ferrets proved difficult to acquire. Island or kit fox would work in this exhibit and be an appropriate fit. Or even moving the roadrunner from the "Discovery Station" (ie the aviary in the queue for the WGASA monorail) would be an appropriate fit (and probably a better one than my previous suggestion).
@reduakari, Arizona Docent, Ituri and DavidBrown: There is another one agree with you guys. What the hell the SDZ-People are thinking about by putting pacas in this excellent themed exhibit complex of SW North America????? Was there really no appropriate (and geographicaly better fitting) place left in the whole Wild Animal Park - oops, sorry, San Diego Safari Park?
