San Diego Zoo Safari Park San Diego Zoo Safari Park News 2016

As of either today/yesterday, the six four month old cheetah cubs have gone on exhibit.
 
Could someone tell me how many elephants the park currently has with possibly some names and genders?
 
Suka is 6.5 months old and weighs 70 pounds. The other Cubs are doing well, but aren't yet on exhibit. Lion siblings Ken and Dixie have moved to Albuquerque, while Sumatran tigers Conrad and Thomas have moved to Kansas City.
 
Accidentally posted this for the zoo, but I was wrong. The two week old red river hogs are being hand raised in the safari park's nursery.
 
jayjds2 said:
I believe so. They could potentially breed their lions but I don't think they would want to, there isn't enough space for them. I believe all the tigers are male.
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I know this post is a couple of months old, but... M'bari and Etosha were once a breeding pair and Etosha had two litters of one that did not survive. Nyack, who is now in Indiana, was the only one to survive, but he had to be partially hand-raised. After Nyack was born, it was decided that M'baria and Etosha would not be bred again because of Etosha's earlier difficulties. They couldn't figure out why the first 2 cubs died.

I'm scheduled for a trip to San Diego next month. I can't wait to see all of the new Cheetah cubs.
 
Apparently, the park still has its black rhinos. They've been introduced to the savanna, though I'm not sure in which exhibit. There are four of them. So far, one is very temperamental while the rest are rather "chill", so to say.
 
Not sure if this was previously mentioned, but the park has added a raptor free flight demonstration in the cheetah run area. Flight demo is 12:45pm and cheetah run is 3:30pm.
 
The three Cubs can be seen from 9:00 to 1:00 daily. The cubs are named Cathy, Debbie, and Nelson. Cathy is identifiable by a triangle over her eye. Debbie has a heart shape over her right eye.
 
Miscellaneous updates based on visit May 12, 2016.

Black rhinos are in the far savanna - the one you can only see from the tram (formerly called South Africa on the monorail). I saw two, not together, but a previous post says there are four. The other large savanna - the one you can see from the walking path as well as the tram (formerly called East Africa) - still has white rhinos. Frustratingly, my tram driver did not mention the distinction once and simply called all of them rhinos.

The former café and gift shop by the cheetahs has had the gift shop removed and that area is now given over to indoor seating for the café. The outdoor seating that was always there still exists as well.

I approached the park from the east (Ramona/Julian) this time instead of the usual approach from San Diego and saw several white rhinos in a fenced area on the perimeter. This area would not be visible from inside the park. I assume this is the newly imported group for breeding purposes?

Three young tiger cubs (and mom) are in the main tiger exhibit in morning and older cub is on exhibit in afternoon. They can see each other through a fence in the night quarters and the hope is to introduce them and have all four cubs out together.

New raptor flight demo in cheetah run area at mid-day. (This is my personal opinion/editorial). I stayed for the first five minutes and left out of boredom. The only bird I saw was a crowned crane, which of course is not a raptor despite the show name. People can pay extra for an upclose experience and that entire five minutes all I saw was the bird fly from one box to another and then the people getting to feed it. It appeared this would go on for some time until all paying participants were taken care of. Although the general public is invited to line the outside and watch, as far as I can tell it is mainly a show to benefit the payees. Considering the high quality of exhibits and shows at both SD facilities, I felt this lackluster performance was well below their standards. As I said, I did not see it all and it is new so maybe they are working things out still.
(Addition - due to the new show, the lions are taken off exhibit from 12:30-1:30pm).
 
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Arizona Docent said:
If this is not enough to make you want to visit, then perhaps the video will entice you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ziad-LcXoa8
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That's a great video. I plan on making my first visit in a few years to the WAP. I hope I'll be able to see them.


In other news, I saw on the park's YouTube page that they now have a pack of Chinese (?) Dhole on hand. Does anybody know if these indeed have origins in the Ussuri region? Or are they of an indistinct background?

It also look like they're in the old... lion exhibit. Would that mean they're off exhibit since the monorail no longer passes (or even exists) through there?
 
The dholes are in the old tiger exhibit which is currently not visible (but may be in the future once the path from new tigers is extended). The old lion exhibit has had the fences removed and is no longer an exhibit (but the hillside is still visible as it lies directly below Condor Ridge). Here is a thread specifically on the dholes: http://www.zoochat.com/22/dholes-24164/
 
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