When I first moved to Tucson from Los Angeles, I was shocked at how popular San Diego is to people here. (I mean the whole city of San Diego, not just the zoo). I was first made aware of this when I went to a grocery store and the paper shopping bags had giant Sea World coupons printed on them. Currently (or at least very recently), you could buy gift card tickets for San Diego Zoo and Safari Park in the checkout line of grocery stores. Because it is the closest beach to Tucson (excluding Mexico) and the closest major city (excluding Phoenix), it is the defacto vacation spot for Tucsonans.
Even knowing this, the following promotion caught me by surprise: San Diego zoo animals visit AAA in free event
Staff from San Diego Zoo are appearing at a local Tucson auto club office with some small live animals to promote their new Australia section. The irony is, most of those animals (blue tongue skink, cockatoo) are education animals right here at Tucson's Reid Park Zoo. Of course we have a good relationship with San Diego (due to the elephant cooperation), so for all I know they may actually be borrowing some of our animals for the talk. Just an example of how far the appeal of San Diego Zoo reaches. (Although it is disheartening for me to think that in all likelihood many Tucsonans visit San Diego Zoo on vacation yet never step foot in their own Reid Park Zoo. I had a coworker several years ago for which this was the case.)
Even knowing this, the following promotion caught me by surprise: San Diego zoo animals visit AAA in free event
Staff from San Diego Zoo are appearing at a local Tucson auto club office with some small live animals to promote their new Australia section. The irony is, most of those animals (blue tongue skink, cockatoo) are education animals right here at Tucson's Reid Park Zoo. Of course we have a good relationship with San Diego (due to the elephant cooperation), so for all I know they may actually be borrowing some of our animals for the talk. Just an example of how far the appeal of San Diego Zoo reaches. (Although it is disheartening for me to think that in all likelihood many Tucsonans visit San Diego Zoo on vacation yet never step foot in their own Reid Park Zoo. I had a coworker several years ago for which this was the case.)
