San Diego Zoo Does The Zoo "Rock" Again?

[pachyderm pro]

While I am fully aware that on a zoo forum such as this one zoo enthusiasts will express enthusiast opinions, considering the desires of the general public can help in understanding why the zoo makes certain decisions. From what I've heard and observed from less enthused friends and family, visibility of animals is important but background "eyesores" are a non issue. In addition, people go crazy for waterfalls. With that in mind, CF and Rady Falls can both be considered home runs. WAF is less so but mostly due to the low number of actual animals in the enclosure. We shall see what MF and the rest of AR has in store.

It may not be an issue to them, but the zoo has proven to be experts in immersion before, why should that change now? The public may not mind the brick holding areas, but I'm just going to say this.

Picture yourself as your average zoo visitor, what would you rather see, a giant brick box, or a lush rainforest?

 

[mweb08]

It never stopped rocking.

 

[mweb08]

To expand on that...

The zoo, even when making exhibits that disappoint (at least to zoo nerds), has been getting better at a rather quick pace.

People bash EO, and while I think they are often over the top, even for them, it still should not be hard to see that they now have a vastly better elephant exhibit than they used to, and they have a vastly better jaguar exhibit, a great condor exhibit, and a better lion exhibit (even though it is very disappointing in terms of its size). And yes, some miss Horn and Hoof Mesa, but that's a very small minority of people (maybe not on here, but in general).

People rip on Panda Trek, but along with the Asian cats exhibit, they have alleviated the waiting in line for the pandas issue, greatly upgraded the snow and amur leopard exhibits, provided a great Mang Mountain viper exhibit, and oh yeah, created a really nice red panda exhibit that is light years better than what that species once had (anyone remember that terrible cage?).

They somewhat recently upgraded Polar Bear Plunge and nearby put in a better exhibit for mountain lions than what had existed before.

They enhanced the reptile experience at the zoo in several places (Pandra Trek, EO, Monkey Trails, etc), but also upgraded the traditional reptile area with Reptile Walk.

They've added a small, but very cool insect house within the last 10 years.

There's now the serval exhibit in the Kopje section.

The Australian section has been upgraded quite a bit, especially with the addition of the Tasmanian devils.

As far as Urban Jungle, it's far from from ideal, but the one main positive is that rhinos now have a vastly larger exhibit than they used to.

Then of course there is Monkey Tails and Forest Trails, which I think even holds up to the scrutiny of most on here and I think is a great exhibit. It, along with Absolutely Apes are certainly vastly better than all the cages in the monkey yard.

This is all within the past 15 or so years.

So while there have been several disappointments, again, especially to zoo nerds, this zoo has undoubtedly come a very long way in the past 15 years as they have now gotten rid of the two worst parts of the zoo and have made so many enhancements.