San Diego Zoo Safari Park Journey into Africa

Thanks for the review. In your opinion does it compare favorably to the old monorail tour?

I would suspect that the wildebeest on display would be the eastern white-bearded wildebeest they use to have in the East African field exhibit. Were there not any bongo in the African Forest field exhibit?
 
Ituri, I miss the old monorail tour immensely, this new tram tour is half as good as the monorail.

I did not see any bongo!
 
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There were bongo right where the tram starts (not part of the field exhibit) last time I was there.
 
You mean where the nyala are now? Are you sure that the female nyala's are'nt what you were looking at?
 
I'm sure the nyala are right where they always are! :) But it is odd that the Bongo weren't visible in the Central Africa area. Every time I have gone by they are easily spotted; in fact there are ten of them.
 
The February issue of Zoonooz has an article on planned addtions to JIA. Apparently, they have already added a couple bird exhibits, including flamingos, along the tram route, as well as one for soemerrings gazelles. Now they plan to add three more exhibits:
1) hartmanns mountain zebras
2) klipspringers and rock hyrax
3) crowned cranes, blue-winged geese, white storks, ground hornbills

According to the article, "Our ultimate goal is to immerse JIA travelers in a safari experience with animals visible on all sides."
 
Interestingly, the new Zoonooz article does not mention the planned habitat for Somali wild ass and barbary sheep. The article accounts for seven of the original eight habitats.

The four completed habitats are:

* greater flamingo habitat on the edge of the East Africa lake.
* a southern African marsh with yellow-billed stork, Egyptian geese and goliath herons
* a habitat adjacent to the marsh with Soemmerring's gazelle (originally planned as steenbok)
* a scrub habitat for lappet-faced and Rueppell's vulture and southern ground hornbill.
 
Ah dang, I just made a post about this without looking. I'll try and head over to the SDWAP and take the tour and put up some screens soon. I hope they still have that Somalian Wild Ass exhibit planned and aren't cutting from their master plan.

It would be nice if JiA got some new plants and landscaping done inside the exhibits too. Complaints from this site say that the exhibit is often a dustbowl in some areas. I agree too; it does not come close to Disney's Kilimanjaro Safari on several fronts, but immersion and landscaping is what I'm talking about here. How green the exhibits are often depend on the weather, but I'd say it would be nice to see some new shrubs and acacia trees planted as most of the trees in the field exhibits don't look anything African and have a bunch of rocks around them. Maybe the new exhibits will lessen this trend.
 
I remember the time period that the decommission of the original Monorail ride was being discussed. The hour long exhibit was chopped into a 15 minute tram, which increased accessibility for the event of emergency and or disabled person situations. The tour itself was dramatically shortened in depth, range of experience, and variety of animals observed. This was mitigated with a public campaign advertising that the future held several new ride experiences, with plans for an asian and I believe australian experience (compartmentalizing old aspects of the original monorail experience). It appears now that this plan has been abandoned. Sad to see that happening.
 
Ituri said:
Interestingly, the new Zoonooz article does not mention the planned habitat for Somali wild ass and barbary sheep. The article accounts for seven of the original eight habitats.

The four completed habitats are:

* greater flamingo habitat on the edge of the East Africa lake.
* a southern African marsh with yellow-billed stork, Egyptian geese and goliath herons
* a habitat adjacent to the marsh with Soemmerring's gazelle (originally planned as steenbok)
* a scrub habitat for lappet-faced and Rueppell's vulture and southern ground hornbill.
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Hope they add some more rare ungulates and perhaps small carnivores.
 
They had plans for Hyenas, Wild dogs, Zebra, Blue Cranes, and a kopje, but those seem to all have been abandoned apparently due to money issues. I don't know why they can't seem to fundraise. Construction on the Tiger exhibit hasn't started yet either probably due to money. Maybe if they didn't spend so much on marketing or creating an "identity" for themself. Not like they had 90 years of history as an institution to fall back on.
 
I hope they eventually make some way for visitors to see the asian field exhibit (without having to pay extra for a special tour). When the forthcoming sumatran tiger exhibits were first announced, there was going to be a walkway to see into them, but that has been scrapped (as far as I know). And rumors of a second JIA style tram tour have never been confirmed.
 
I was at the park on Monday and did the photo caravan tour. The educator told us that Tiger Trails hasn't broken ground yet because of funding issues. She said they need $20 million, they got $10 million last year and she heard the rest is coming soon. She said that the tiger walkway may still happen.

The educator also told us that currently the park has 1.3 million visitors and needs closer to 2 million to maximize their resources. She also told us that the name change from Wild Park to Safari Park was to try to make it easier to find the park on the internet and increase internet traffic.

And on a separate note - I love the park and the zoo! I travel every year from Toronto to go and I am never disappointed. Each year there are new developments, tonnes of new babies and new exhibits. The people in southern California are truly lucky to have such an amazing zoo/park in their backyard!
 
kknudsen said:
I was at the park on Monday and did the photo caravan tour. The educator told us that Tiger Trails hasn't broken ground yet because of funding issues. She said they need $20 million, they got $10 million last year and she heard the rest is coming soon. She said that the tiger walkway may still happen.

The educator also told us that currently the park has 1.3 million visitors and needs closer to 2 million to maximize their resources. She also told us that the name change from Wild Park to Safari Park was to try to make it easier to find the park on the internet and increase internet traffic.

And on a separate note - I love the park and the zoo! I travel every year from Toronto to go and I am never disappointed. Each year there are new developments, tonnes of new babies and new exhibits. The people in southern California are truly lucky to have such an amazing zoo/park in their backyard!
Click to expand...

I agree, but the people of Toronto are also EXTREMLY lucky! Toronto Zoo is amazing!
 
kknudsen said:
The educator also told us that currently the park has 1.3 million visitors and needs closer to 2 million to maximize their resources.
Click to expand...

Well they could increase their attendance if they dropped the ridiculous ten dollar parking fee IMO. And they could easily double their summer attendance from tourists if they offered a shuttle service from downtown San Diego.
 
Arizona Docent said:
Well they could increase their attendance if they dropped the ridiculous ten dollar parking fee IMO. And they could easily double their summer attendance from tourists if they offered a shuttle service from downtown San Diego.
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Both worthy bits of advice. Seems both could significantly improve attendance. And yes a shuttle service from downtown would really make a big difference.

Have you ever tried to get the management interested on it?
 
Arizona Docent said:
Well they could increase their attendance if they dropped the ridiculous ten dollar parking fee IMO. And they could easily double their summer attendance from tourists if they offered a shuttle service from downtown San Diego.
Click to expand...

Good suggestions.

In addition to those issues, has the zoo and park both raised their admission prices a lot or am I just not seeing the basic admission prices on the website? The zoo for example charges $42, but that includes unlimited bus tour, express bus, and the aerial tram. I wouldn't use that stuff other than maybe the aerial tram. I would just want the basic admission.
 
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