San Diego Zoo Thoughts on San Diego Zoo

[reduakari]

Reduakri I was told by the jaguar keeper, I think that is much more accurate than you judging from the plans. They will be much larger than the current exhibits. That would be pretty inaccurate to judge just by how wide the exhibit is compared to a service road. Why are you so doubtful Elephant Odyssey will not be a great exhibit? seriously.

The service road is a good way to accurately judge the scale of the cat exhibits depicted next to it--it provides a scale to measure the plan by. I hope your source is correct--if so, then the plans used by SDZS for press purposes are not accurate (which would not be unusual).

My worries about the exhibit are based on what was shown in the San Diego newspaper article about the exhibit, that highlighted both the huge building and the metal "enrichment trees" that will very much distract from any effort to represent a natural habitat, which is one of the stated aims of the project. And, not to be a broken record, but none of the exhibits built in San Diego in the past 15 years meet their potential in a way that other zoos (Seattle, etc.) consistently do in terms of attention to detail. And for me that is as important as anything else. I respect if others disagree, but to me it is just disappointing to see the zoo that SHOULD lead the world cutting corners and producing mediocre products where greatness is claimed and expected.

 

[BlackRhino]

Well I just visited the San Diego Zoo last month and was blown away by the number of excellent exhibits. Tiger River, Ituri Forest, Monkey Trails & Forest Tales, Gorilla Tropics, Polar Bear Plunge, Sun Bear Forest, Reptile Mesa, Giant Panda Research Station, Massive Aviaries, not to mention the brilliant WAP 30 minutes up the road. That to me is a top quality zoo, and with Elephant Odyssey, maybe the best exhibit yet, clearly makes this zoo one of the top in the world. I am sure a world-class institution like the San Diego Zoo would allot enough space for Nindiri the jaguar in a 2009 state-of the art exhibit.
The enrichment trees sound like a brilliant idea to me. They will keep the elephants moving and active which is crucial health-wise for the aging elephants that will call the new exhibit home.

 

[mweb08]

Why so sure? Look at the plans that have been published by the zoo, displayed on their construction signs and posted here! It's clear from the plans that the cat exhibits are NOT BIG, and in fact look about the same size as the current small exhibits for lions and jaguars. I agree that focusing just on jaguars might be a good move--it could effectively double the space devoted to them and the lions at the WAP are just fine.

And top quality zoos pay attention both to their mountains AND their molehills.

Well common sense tells us they wouldn't move the animals into a new exhibit unless it was bigger. It's also hard to tell how big the exhibits will be in the blue prints, you may be right that they won't be as big as you or I would hope, but I'd bet you anything that they'll be bigger. BlackRhino also heard from a keeper that the jaguar exhibit will be bigger.

As Ituri said, you can't expect the SD Zoo to not have lions, you have to remember that many people don't visit both the zoo and the park. I'm not sure on this, but I would also think that they might move one of the male lions from the park that was moved out of lion camp to the zoo. That would make sense considering they will be doing something else with the area he and a female now live in. Or they could obviously ship them to another zoo, but regardless, they need to be moved somewhere.

The SD Zoo is a top quality zoo. I've never been to a zoo that you can't complain about something, plus different people have different tastes, some of the things that have been mentioned as problems here are not negatives to me.

 

[mweb08]

Well I just visited the San Diego Zoo last month and was blown away by the number of excellent exhibits. Tiger River, Ituri Forest, Monkey Trails & Forest Tales, Gorilla Tropics, Polar Bear Plunge, Sun Bear Forest, Reptile Mesa, Giant Panda Research Station, Massive Aviaries, not to mention the brilliant WAP 30 minutes up the road. That to me is a top quality zoo, and with Elephant Odyssey, maybe the best exhibit yet, clearly makes this zoo one of the top in the world. I am sure a world-class institution like the San Diego Zoo would allot enough space for Nindiri the jaguar in a 2009 state-of the art exhibit.
The enrichment trees sound like a brilliant idea to me. They will keep the elephants moving and active which is crucial health-wise for the aging elephants that will call the new exhibit home.

Yeah, all very good exhibits. I also think the enrichment trees could be good. Sure all natural would look good assuming the elephants didn't destroy the plants/trees, but something that will make the elephants lives better is more important to me.

BTW, there are two jaguars at the zoo, they rotate time on exhibit.

 

[BlackRhino]

Yes but Orson the black jaguar is staying in the Cat Canyon in enclosure as he is 16 years old and that is his home. Nindiri came to SDZ last summer in preparation for the new Elephant Odyssey. When the new exhibit in Elephant Odyssey is completed she will be moving their and San Diego will acquire another male male jaguar so they can become a breeding center for jaguars.

 

[mweb08]

Yes but Orson the black jaguar is staying in the Cat Canyon in enclosure as he is 16 years old and that is his home. Nindiri came to SDZ last summer in preparation for the new Elephant Odyssey. When the new exhibit in Elephant Odyssey is completed she will be moving their and San Diego will acquire another male male jaguar so they can become a breeding center for jaguars.

Cool. Do you know which lions are going into the new exhibit?

 

[Zoogoer2000]

The plans are to bring Mbari and Etosha the SDWAP's two off exhibit lions but im pretty sure the two females in Bear Canyon will also be moved up to Elephant Oddessey

 

[mweb08]

The plans are to bring Mbari and Etosha the SDWAP's two off exhibit lions but im pretty sure the two females in Bear Canyon will also be moved up to Elephant Oddessey

Ok, thanks, what about the lions in the big exhibit opposite the tigers? I know they're going to do something different(asia trail) with that exhibit.

 

[BlackRhino]

Mweezi and Tango, the two lioness in bear canyon, are probably too old to be moved into a new exhibit. They are both passed the age of 15.

 

[Buckeye092]

I agree with BlackRhino, the girls in Bear Canyon are too old to move. Considering the zoo is going to be a lion holding facility not a breeding facility (I'm assuming, it would be dumb if SDZ and SDWAP were both breeders) than having a pair of females on exhibit is fine. If they really needed more they could snag some of the youngsters who are approaching adulthood at the park.

 

[Zoogoer2000]

Ok, thanks, what about the lions in the big exhibit opposite the tigers? I know they're going to do something different(asia trail) with that exhibit.

Actually, the lions your thinking of are Mbari and Etosha. They used to live in that exhibit but there off display now since the dholes are moving into that exhibit

 

[mweb08]

I agree with BlackRhino, the girls in Bear Canyon are too old to move. Considering the zoo is going to be a lion holding facility not a breeding facility (I'm assuming, it would be dumb if SDZ and SDWAP were both breeders) than having a pair of females on exhibit is fine. If they really needed more they could snag some of the youngsters who are approaching adulthood at the park.

I recall reading about a cubbing den in the new exhibit, so I would think breeding will occur at the zoo.

 

[Buckeye092]

That decision is most unwise. The lion population in the US is at capacity. There are a few breeding recommendations to expand certain facilities own populations (i.e. - Columbus) but there isn't a lot of room unless they keep the cubs.

Also, I noticed they are saying the capacity (elephant wise) is eight. When the WAP elephants move over here there will be 1.4. Are they going to add other elephants? It would be cool to see some other zoo's geriatric and lonely elephants become integrated into this herd.

 

[Ituri]

As far as the lions go. It would be foolish of them to build a new facility that is not set up for breeding. It doesn't mean they intend to do it right off the bat. (I don't know for sure, but I would guess not).

1.4 elephants? Where does that number come from. 0.3 + 1.3 = 1.6

 

[Buckeye092]

Oops I meant 1.5. I thought Tembo was going to WAP.

 

[Zoogoer2000]

As far as the lions go. It would be foolish of them to build a new facility that is not set up for breeding. It doesn't mean they intend to do it right off the bat. (I don't know for sure, but I would guess not).

1.4 elephants? Where does that number come from. 0.3 + 1.3 = 1.6

If they breed, they would most likely bring in some new females as Etosha is now listed as non-breeding due to her complications with giving birth/raising cubs

 

[okapikpr]

That decision is most unwise. The lion population in the US is at capacity. There are a few breeding recommendations to expand certain facilities own populations (i.e. - Columbus) but there isn't a lot of room unless they keep the cubs.

Really??? There is a huge shortage of pedigreed SSP lions that the program is desperately trying to keep up with. Many old generic lions are passing on and several new facilities are joining the SSP. The program is even reccommending the breeding of low ranked animals just to keep up with the demographic needs.

 

[Buckeye092]

Well I haven't been watching lion population demographics much - so that statement may have changed when I was told that two years ago.