I would really like to see San Diego Zoo build a decent giraffe exhibit, which they have never really had to my knowledge, in contrast to the WAP which showcases them much like you would see in the wild. The current and former yards were okay, but never more than dusty smallish yards. It doesn't look like that will happen anytime soon, if ever, though.
California has a mixed bag of giraffe exhibits. The San Diego WAP may have the best zoo set-up for giraffes anywhere. For all of the criticism aimed at the San Francisco Zoo (mostly justified I think), they do have a good giraffe exhibit. The Living Desert on Palm Springs has a great giraffe exhibit. Sacramento and Oakland have quite large, albeit mostly dusty exhibits. Fresno is a work in progress with a new giraffe exhibit coming in 2014 as part of their Africa exhibit.
The largest zoos, Los Angeles and San Diego, sadly have the worst exhibits.
I completely agree about the san diego zoo giraffe exhibit. Way to small. I personally had wished that when they decided to get rid of the hoof and horn mesa that they had made one large exhibit in it's place with several ungulates not shown at the wild life animal park. I am not a fan of elephant odysee...
Are these deemed to be pure-bred Masai giraffe? They look quite Rothschild-ish to my amateur eye.
What is the general situation with giraffe in the USA? In EAZA considerable progress has been made in recent years towards building up stocks of reticulated and Rothschild's at the expense of hybrid stock.
What do those with knowledge think is the best way forward for zoo management plans, bearing in mind that the consensus on giraffe taxonomy has been challenged quite strongly in the last decade?
The Masai population in the US is pure. It was determined that the Rothschild's and reticulated giraffes were hybrids and so are now managed as a single population.
