San Diego Zoo New "Africa Rocks" complex at San Diego Zoo

Last year there were also Spotted Hyenas on the third set of grottoes closest to the Striped Hyena exhibit (now Giant Anteater). The spotted hyenas were moved to the old lion grotto in Center Street (Asian Passage).

And the anteaters are rotating with the maned wolves up near elephant Odyssey right?
 
It also has had hyenas and for a short time the male gerenuks were in there.

In what now seems like forever ago, that yard held Mishmi Takin and North Indian Muntjac. If I stretch my memory further I can also recall Axis Deer in that exhibit when I was a child.
 
On the Africa Rocks donation page it shows that the progress bar is finally full it seems like they've finally reached the goal hopefully construction will start soon
 
Yes this is great news.


It is great news, but this quote from their Facebook page has me slightly concerned.

San Diego Zoo said:
Great news! We just met our Ernest Rady Challenge for the new $60 million Conrad Prebys Africa Rocks exhibit that will open in 2017! The exhibit will replace 1930s-era cages and grottoes in Dog and Cat Canyon, and will include the largest man-made waterfall in San Diego

I know they have plans for leopards and mountain lions(?), but with a significant amount of yard space for baboons where are all the cats going to go? The felines appear to be getting the short end of the stick in San Diego.

And what happened to the geladas? The announcement mentions Haymadras baboons, but not geladas. You would think the zoo would be mentioning that fact every chance they got.
 
The new mountain lion exhibit is already done and recently opened between Polar Bear Plunge and Elephant Odyssey. African leopard exhibit will be part of this expansion and Amur leopard and snow leopard will supposedly get new exhibits by pandas (a recent post makes the location uncertain). A second jaguar exhibit opened when Elephant Odyssey opened and the older one is now empty since the black jaguar died. So I think the only thing on the cat row that is unaccounted for is Eurasian lynx. Since those are not part of any AZA plan I would not be surprised if they are not put into a new exhibit.
 
The new mountain lion exhibit is already done and recently opened between Polar Bear Plunge and Elephant Odyssey. African leopard exhibit will be part of this expansion and Amur leopard and snow leopard will supposedly get new exhibits by pandas (a recent post makes the location uncertain). A second jaguar exhibit opened when Elephant Odyssey opened and the older one is now empty since the black jaguar died. So I think the only thing on the cat row that is unaccounted for is Eurasian lynx. Since those are not part of any AZA plan I would not be surprised if they are not put into a new exhibit.

Wait,so it has been confirmed that African Leopards will be part of Africa Rocks? I thought it would just be the Amur Leopards being passed off as African leopards near Africa Rocks.
 
I have seen both geladas and hamadrayas mentioned. I don't think a lot of this build is certain yet - many exhibits are being cut, reinstated. There will be some more detailed plan released in due course I imagine.
 
I have seen both geladas and hamadrayas mentioned. I don't think a lot of this build is certain yet - many exhibits are being cut, reinstated. There will be some more detailed plan released in due course I imagine.

Elephant Odyssey was to have sloth bears, Przewalski's horse and bison when originally announced so at this point I would guess the final program may still be a bit fluid.
 
Elephant Odyssey was to have sloth bears, Przewalski's horse and bison when originally announced so at this point I would guess the final program may still be a bit fluid.

But with EO we got domestic horses, donkeys and Kirk's dik-dik, so who's complaining!?
 
But with EO we got domestic horses, donkeys and Kirk's dik-dik, so who's complaining!?

The single funniest ZooChat post in quite some time!:)

Due to the enormous cost of $60 million the anticipation for Africa Rocks is sky-high but my fingers are crossed that it will be a success.

On a side note, how many zoos even have 2 of these 3 species? It is great that San Diego has Tasmanian Devil, Pangolin and Aye-Aye all on daily public view.
 
On a side note, how many zoos even have 2 of these 3 species? It is great that San Diego has Tasmanian Devil, Pangolin and Aye-Aye all on daily public view.
Ueno Zoo (Japan) had Chinese Pangolin and Aye-aye last year.

Other than that there is (probably) no other zoo with more than one of those three species.
 
Ueno Zoo (Japan) had Chinese Pangolin and Aye-aye last year.

Other than that there is (probably) no other zoo with more than one of those three species.

Surely Leipzig have two of the three - aye-aye and pangolin? We'd know for sure if Dave ever finishes his write-up of his German tour... :p
 
Surely Leipzig have two of the three - aye-aye and pangolin? We'd know for sure if Dave ever finishes his write-up of his German tour... :p
I checked Zootierliste for Aye-aye at Leipzig and it didn't list them, which is as much as I know.

The only zoos outside Australasia with devils are Copenhagen (which has neither aye-ayes nor pangolins) and San Diego. There are no pangolins or aye-ayes in Australasia (and never have been) so no combinations there.

I think there are no aye-ayes in Asia apart for Japan so only there could they be combined with pangolin (I don't think Taipei has aye-ayes, and I know Singapore doesn't, and those are the only other likely candidates).

So unless there's a zoo in Africa with aye-ayes and pangolins that leaves only San Diego and Ueno.
 
The new mountain lion exhibit is already done and recently opened between Polar Bear Plunge and Elephant Odyssey. African leopard exhibit will be part of this expansion and Amur leopard and snow leopard will supposedly get new exhibits by pandas (a recent post makes the location uncertain). A second jaguar exhibit opened when Elephant Odyssey opened and the older one is now empty since the black jaguar died. So I think the only thing on the cat row that is unaccounted for is Eurasian lynx. Since those are not part of any AZA plan I would not be surprised if they are not put into a new exhibit.

Thanks for the update on the mountain lion habitat. I somehow missed the opening announcement.

I've seen the new jaguar exhibit -- and I suppose it's fine -- but the cats do seem to be getting smallish enclosures; that new lion habitat in EO is pathetically small. Now, it's been a couple of years since I've been back to San Diego, but I recall a few other small cats across the path -- the Eurasian lynx you mentioned is one, but there was also a serval, a caracal, and one one other that I can't quite remember.


Panda Corner, as I call it, seems rather crowded as is. There's some space on the hillside they could work with, but it seems kinda forced. I'll be interested in seeing what they manage to come up with. I'd like to see a really good snow leopard habitat here on the Left Coast.

threeple61 said:
I have seen both geladas and hamadrayas mentioned

I've seen geladas mentioned (earlier in this thread, I believe), but you would think the zoo would be trumpeting the fact that they'd be only the second zoo in the states to exhibit them. Instead, they mention Hamaydras baboons. Like others, I wonder if they idea was scrapped and/or temporarily shelved for whatever reason.

snowleopard said:
On a side note, how many zoos even have 2 of these 3 species? It is great that San Diego has Tasmanian Devil, Pangolin and Aye-Aye all on daily public view.

Is the pangolin actually on exhibit? Last I heard it was only brought out during keeper chats.
 
Is the pangolin actually on exhibit? Last I heard it was only brought out during keeper chats.
it is indeed! On the news thread for San Diego betsy has said it is now on permanent display in the Children Zoo area. Photos and all.
 
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