Put Me In The Zoo: California Academy of Sciences Review
Date of visit: December 27, 2012
Bottom line: This place is truly Disneyland for any fan of biological diversity. It will likely hold the interest of anyone, at least for a while, regardless of whether they like animals and plants or not.
The California Academy of Sciences is a unique facility located in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. It is a combination of natural history museum, aquarium, planetarium, and scientific research institution. The academy was established in 1853 and has had several physical incarnations. Its facility and collections were largely destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. In 1989 another earthquake did severe damage to the buildings and the decision was made to tear down the existing museum and aquarium and build an entire new facility.
Does this (kind-of) zoo satisfy the reviewer’s Inner-3-Year-Old by featuring his lifelong favorite animals, giraffes and elephants?
Technically, yes. The California Academy of Sciences has a herd of mounted Masai giraffes in its main hall. These specimens were originally in the African mammal hall in the old museum building, which has now been replaced with a shiny new building. The Africa hall is one of the only parts of the new building that has been reconstructed to resemble the prior incarnation of the museum. The Masai giraffes were originally the centerpiece exhibit of the Africa hall in a replica of a savanna watering hole. This exhibit was replaced by a tank of living African penguins however, so the giraffes now “live” in the main hall of the building.
There were never elephants in the original Africa hall. They now have a presence as a projection of a herd of elephants lumbering through the savanna backdrop of the diorama of Grevy’s zebras and gerenuks. It is a cool 21st century effect, and one that I have not seen in other natural history museum dioramas.
The Africa hall is an interesting attempt to make a concept from the early 20th century relevant for 21st century audiences. Many of the dioramas in the original exhibit hall have been retained including mountain gorillas, wild dogs, lions, and various antelope species like Hunter’s hartebeest, sable, and roan. Interspersed in the hall are live African animal exhibits including savanna monitors, Jackson’s chameleons, Lake Victoria cichlid species, and African penguins. oi
Does this zoo have any animals that would excite a zoo aficionado?
The Steinhart Aquarium focuses on several biodiversity hotspots including the Amazon basin, the California coast, and the coral reefs of the Philippines. Some of the highlight species include giant Pacific octopus, green anaconda, flamboyant cuttlefish, and a cast of several hundred others. The other main live animal exhibit is a rain forest dome in which one walks up a spiral walkway through layers of rain forest from different parts of the world (Borneo, Madagascar, and Costa Rica). There are free-flying Costa Rican bird and butterfly species at the top of the dome and terraria with many reptile, amphibian, and invertebrate species along the spiral trail to the top of the dome. Likely there are several species here that any fish, marine invertebrate, reptile, and/or amphibian mammal enthusiast would like. If you like African megafauna and don’t mind seeing it in mounted form then there is lots for you here also.
Does this zoo have any immersion exhibits that would impress a zoo aficionado?
The rain forest dome isn’t especially naturalistic – you never feel like you are really in a forest, but it is immersive in the sense that it is very humid and there are butterflies all around you. The bottom of the rain forest exhibit is an aquarium tank filled with large fish and turtle species of the Amazon River. The tank has a walk-through tunnel that puts one in the middle of the “Amazon River”, and it is quite cool.
One of the highlights of the new building is the “living roof” that has been planted with native California plants and now resembles various ecosystems that used to exist in San Francisco (and still do in pockets).
Does this zoo have any good basic exhibits?
The terrariums in the rain forest and most of the aquarium tanks in the Steinhart Aquarium are normal tanks that one sees in most zoos and aquariums. They are probably adequate homes for their inhabitants, but not especially spectacular. The Bornean gliding lizard and frog species in the rain forest are in tanks far too small for them to display this behavior if they were so inclined.
Does this zoo have any exhibits that should be bulldozed?
The whole facility opened in 2008 so everything is still pretty sparkling. The rain forest exhibit originally had a cave exhibit with bats, but they have been replaced with a water monitor so the original concept didn’t work for some reason.
Does this zoo have any elements that make it particularly family friendly?
The California Academy of Sciences is very family friendly. The penguin tank is built so that kids can get in close and watch the penguins swimming under water. There are interpretive programs and stations set up all over the facility with demonstrations for all ages. I saw an interpretive cart with Pleistocene mammal fossils that people could touch including a mammoth tooth and a saber-tooth skull cast.
Does this zoo have any interesting plans for the future?
There are always new exhibits coming and going. When the new building opened there was an exhibit on climate change. It has now been replaced with an exhibit on earthquakes. The highlight of the earthquake exhibit is a simulator that allows one to feel what the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes felt like in part. There are also exhibits illustrating how movement of continental plates (i.e., the drivers of earthquakes) affected the distribution of different groups of animals like ratites and marsupials as continents broke apart.
Would a zoo aficionado like this zoo enough to go out of his or her way to visit it?
Yes. There are enough exhibits on the evolution, ecology, behavior, and general natural history of all the major groups of plants and animals on Earth to make your head explode. There is a very good aquarium and an interesting rain forest exhibit. There is a digital planetarium with shows about planets, stars, life, the universe, and everything that is greatly worth experiencing. When I visited the show was about earthquakes and how they are generated. The digital dome surrounds one such that you feel like you are moving through the scenes presented. The highlight of the show is a real journey to the center of the Earth that allows one to see the crust of the planet and how the tectonic plates are crashing into each other. Anybody interested in natural sciences would be bereft of a world-class experience if they missed visiting the California Academy of Sciences while in the San Francisco area.
Date of visit: December 27, 2012
Bottom line: This place is truly Disneyland for any fan of biological diversity. It will likely hold the interest of anyone, at least for a while, regardless of whether they like animals and plants or not.
The California Academy of Sciences is a unique facility located in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. It is a combination of natural history museum, aquarium, planetarium, and scientific research institution. The academy was established in 1853 and has had several physical incarnations. Its facility and collections were largely destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. In 1989 another earthquake did severe damage to the buildings and the decision was made to tear down the existing museum and aquarium and build an entire new facility.
Does this (kind-of) zoo satisfy the reviewer’s Inner-3-Year-Old by featuring his lifelong favorite animals, giraffes and elephants?
Technically, yes. The California Academy of Sciences has a herd of mounted Masai giraffes in its main hall. These specimens were originally in the African mammal hall in the old museum building, which has now been replaced with a shiny new building. The Africa hall is one of the only parts of the new building that has been reconstructed to resemble the prior incarnation of the museum. The Masai giraffes were originally the centerpiece exhibit of the Africa hall in a replica of a savanna watering hole. This exhibit was replaced by a tank of living African penguins however, so the giraffes now “live” in the main hall of the building.
There were never elephants in the original Africa hall. They now have a presence as a projection of a herd of elephants lumbering through the savanna backdrop of the diorama of Grevy’s zebras and gerenuks. It is a cool 21st century effect, and one that I have not seen in other natural history museum dioramas.
The Africa hall is an interesting attempt to make a concept from the early 20th century relevant for 21st century audiences. Many of the dioramas in the original exhibit hall have been retained including mountain gorillas, wild dogs, lions, and various antelope species like Hunter’s hartebeest, sable, and roan. Interspersed in the hall are live African animal exhibits including savanna monitors, Jackson’s chameleons, Lake Victoria cichlid species, and African penguins. oi
Does this zoo have any animals that would excite a zoo aficionado?
The Steinhart Aquarium focuses on several biodiversity hotspots including the Amazon basin, the California coast, and the coral reefs of the Philippines. Some of the highlight species include giant Pacific octopus, green anaconda, flamboyant cuttlefish, and a cast of several hundred others. The other main live animal exhibit is a rain forest dome in which one walks up a spiral walkway through layers of rain forest from different parts of the world (Borneo, Madagascar, and Costa Rica). There are free-flying Costa Rican bird and butterfly species at the top of the dome and terraria with many reptile, amphibian, and invertebrate species along the spiral trail to the top of the dome. Likely there are several species here that any fish, marine invertebrate, reptile, and/or amphibian mammal enthusiast would like. If you like African megafauna and don’t mind seeing it in mounted form then there is lots for you here also.
Does this zoo have any immersion exhibits that would impress a zoo aficionado?
The rain forest dome isn’t especially naturalistic – you never feel like you are really in a forest, but it is immersive in the sense that it is very humid and there are butterflies all around you. The bottom of the rain forest exhibit is an aquarium tank filled with large fish and turtle species of the Amazon River. The tank has a walk-through tunnel that puts one in the middle of the “Amazon River”, and it is quite cool.
One of the highlights of the new building is the “living roof” that has been planted with native California plants and now resembles various ecosystems that used to exist in San Francisco (and still do in pockets).
Does this zoo have any good basic exhibits?
The terrariums in the rain forest and most of the aquarium tanks in the Steinhart Aquarium are normal tanks that one sees in most zoos and aquariums. They are probably adequate homes for their inhabitants, but not especially spectacular. The Bornean gliding lizard and frog species in the rain forest are in tanks far too small for them to display this behavior if they were so inclined.
Does this zoo have any exhibits that should be bulldozed?
The whole facility opened in 2008 so everything is still pretty sparkling. The rain forest exhibit originally had a cave exhibit with bats, but they have been replaced with a water monitor so the original concept didn’t work for some reason.
Does this zoo have any elements that make it particularly family friendly?
The California Academy of Sciences is very family friendly. The penguin tank is built so that kids can get in close and watch the penguins swimming under water. There are interpretive programs and stations set up all over the facility with demonstrations for all ages. I saw an interpretive cart with Pleistocene mammal fossils that people could touch including a mammoth tooth and a saber-tooth skull cast.
Does this zoo have any interesting plans for the future?
There are always new exhibits coming and going. When the new building opened there was an exhibit on climate change. It has now been replaced with an exhibit on earthquakes. The highlight of the earthquake exhibit is a simulator that allows one to feel what the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes felt like in part. There are also exhibits illustrating how movement of continental plates (i.e., the drivers of earthquakes) affected the distribution of different groups of animals like ratites and marsupials as continents broke apart.
Would a zoo aficionado like this zoo enough to go out of his or her way to visit it?
Yes. There are enough exhibits on the evolution, ecology, behavior, and general natural history of all the major groups of plants and animals on Earth to make your head explode. There is a very good aquarium and an interesting rain forest exhibit. There is a digital planetarium with shows about planets, stars, life, the universe, and everything that is greatly worth experiencing. When I visited the show was about earthquakes and how they are generated. The digital dome surrounds one such that you feel like you are moving through the scenes presented. The highlight of the show is a real journey to the center of the Earth that allows one to see the crust of the planet and how the tectonic plates are crashing into each other. Anybody interested in natural sciences would be bereft of a world-class experience if they missed visiting the California Academy of Sciences while in the San Francisco area.
