It was finally a warm, sunny day in San Diego today, so I decided to spend the day at the Zoo. I'm back with a couple of updates since my last visit last month.
Wildlife Explorers Basecamp:
- There are now Bornean river turtles and Fly River turtles in the West African dwarf crocodile exhibit outside of the Cool Critters building.
- I do not think it has been posted yet, but there are now two Chinese giant salamanders on display in the lower level of Cool Critters.
- The large South American exhibit in the lower level of Cool Critters is restocked with the fish species; however, the caiman lizard has not yet returned.
- The West African river tank in the lower level of Cool Critters is still empty.
- All of the ambassador reptile terrariums in the upper level of the Cool Critters building have been removed.
- The Biak tree monitor in the upper level of the Cool Critters building has been replaced by a mix of Madagascar ground boas and Madagascar tree boas.
- The horseshoe crab display in the upper level of Spineless Marvels has been removed.
Reptile Mesa:
- More of the terrariums in the Reptile House are closed for renovations.
- The Gray's monitor has moved into the much larger former argus monitor exhibit. The former Gray's monitor exhibit is closed for renovations.
- Several of the terrariums in both of the Reptile Walk buildings are closed for renovations.
- There are now juvenile Galapagos tortoises in one of the iguana yards.
Lost Forest:
- The mandrill/Schmidt's red-tailed guenon exhibit in Monkey Trails and Forest Tales has reopened after being re-roped.
- The aviary before the pygmy hippo complex has reopened.
- It appears the slender-snouted crocodiles are guarding a nest.
- All of the wire aviaries in Tiger River are now reopened. The glass-fronted aviary next to the Siamese crocodiles is still boarded up.
- The former herp/bird display between the tapirs and tigers is still under construction. It appears they might be turning it into an aviary, replacing all of the solid walls with mesh.
- The former coconut crab exhibit has been turned into a display on Southeast Asian carnivorous plants and the illegal plant trade.
Northern Frontier:
- The Arctic Aviary has been emptied for renovations. The waterfowl have been moved to the former otter exhibit in Bear Canyon.
Elephant Odyssey:
- Bush elephant "Vus'musi" has been fully integrated with the two other bachelor males and seems to be doing really well since leaving the Safari Park!
- The female Baird's tapir appeared quite round and was showing some udder development, so hopefully there will be a little furry watermelon at the Zoo sometime soon!
- The two terrariums that have been most recently housing the bromeliad and Monte Cristo arboreal alligator lizards are now completely empty.
Africa Rocks:
- The vervet monkey exhibit in the Acacia Woodlands is closed.
Asian Passage:
- The aviary in Sun Bear Forest has reopened.
- Construction continues on Panda Canyon. New rockwork has gone up around the old giant panda exhibits, and new fencing and framing for new rockwork is going up above the old takin exhibit.
Urban Jungle:
- The middle connected pair of cages in the roundabout of cages (where the laughing kookaburra and binturong are) that have been empty for a long time have been reperched and appear to be awaiting new residents.
- The female Soemmerring's gazelle in the giraffe yard is also beginning to look quite round...
Australian Outback:
- The Tasmanian devil exhibits have "Wildlife Temporarily Off Display" signs in them... I suspect this means that the last remaining devil has now passed
Unfortunately, they will not. The last of the zoo's Indian peafowl were sent away as a result of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza precautions. With the threat of HPAI outbreaks now present with each migration period, the zoo has opted to maintain birds in covered exhibits whenever possible to prevent close contact with wild birds. Since the peafowl were free-roaming and aviary space at the zoo is limited, the choice was made to go out of the species.
