San Diego Zoo Thoughts on San Diego Zoo
- Thread starter aw101
- Start date
SDCritter
Active Member
I understand the point that is being made by folks here. The orangs do spend more time on the ground then your wild orang might. But I have spent many hours seeing the all of the orangs, including the big male Clyde swinging away. The design isn't perfect but with each new exhibit they learn more. That's the reason they redid the orang exhibit in the first place, the Zoo is growing in its knowledge. The best I can say is watch Ape Cam on the Zoo Web site for a while and you'll be sure to see some orangs and siamangs having a ball off the ground.
And Patrick I must disagree. An animal will always retreat to where instincts tells the animal it should be, for orangs that means up above. If they were concerned they'd move up and away from what concerns them. If they're comfortable they don't mind relaxing and letting their guard down, whether it's on the ground or in the canopies. But the ground is not safe haven when instinct says get away. Ah well, we'll agree to disagree.
And Patrick I must disagree. An animal will always retreat to where instincts tells the animal it should be, for orangs that means up above. If they were concerned they'd move up and away from what concerns them. If they're comfortable they don't mind relaxing and letting their guard down, whether it's on the ground or in the canopies. But the ground is not safe haven when instinct says get away. Ah well, we'll agree to disagree.
The "World Famous" San Diego Zoo should do better. "Little details" like the ugly (and totally unnecessary) fence between the okapi and hippo is but one example of the sloppy execution of exhibits at this zoo. As posted earlier, the zoo is building new exhibits with good concepts and can obviously "out-plant" just about any other zoo, but they never get sightlines right, never replicate geology accurately, and sacrifice good ideas to cram in additional species, no matter how illogical (see Polar Bear Plunge and red pandas....).
Arizona Sonora, Woodland Park, Bronx, DAC and others blow San Diego out of the water as far as exhibit quality goes. Clearly San Diego has decided that there's no need to go the extra yard to create truly great exhibits, as they just need to keep SAYING they are the best zoo in the world and people believe it.
I love San Diego for its incredible diversity, but just don't think they are trying to create truly beautiful and effective exhibits. It's a real shame, because if they did it could be an extraordinary place.
Arizona Sonora, Woodland Park, Bronx, DAC and others blow San Diego out of the water as far as exhibit quality goes. Clearly San Diego has decided that there's no need to go the extra yard to create truly great exhibits, as they just need to keep SAYING they are the best zoo in the world and people believe it.
I love San Diego for its incredible diversity, but just don't think they are trying to create truly beautiful and effective exhibits. It's a real shame, because if they did it could be an extraordinary place.
The nile hippo pool is amazing, the Ituri Forest primate/otter combination is excellent, polar bear plunge and sun bear forest aren't award-worthy but are still up there amongst the best of their kind for those species of bear, the lion-tailed macaque jungle, birds of prey aviaries, bonobo exhibit, tiger mountain, pygmy hippo/wolf's guenon exhibit, slender-snouted crocodile pool, etc are all terrific and better than most other zoo habitats in North America. Monkey Tales and Forest Trails and the Reptile Mesa also contain outstanding, naturalistic habitats for hundreds of animals.
I definitely agree with snowleopard and disagree with reduakari. I also think San Diego has an amazing Gorilla exhibit too with lush tropical plants and few hotwire, and it also has a fine collection of pachyderms and pretty soon it will have an amazing elephant exhibit. It also has the amazing exhibits snowleopard mentioned above. I think the San Diego Zoo may be the best zoo there is. A fine collection in naturalistic award-worthy exhibits in a near perfect climate where the animals go out about 365 days a year- It does not get much better.
I'm going to side with reduakari here. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy visiting the San Diego Zoo. The issue isn't whether the exhibits are better than most other zoos, it is that the exhibits could have been so much more realistic and naturalistic. I think the finest two exhibits ZSSD have done are the Kopje and the Heart of Africa (before this Journey into Africa whooey). The real turning point for me really was Ituri Forest, that's when the hardscape really seemed to overwhelm the landscape. It is also (correct me if I'm wrong) the first exhibit they did in house, and have done ever since. The rockwork is rarely ever believable any more (particularly the "otter pool" with underwater viewing in the buffalo exhibit, man that thing is a mess) and the concrete and metal seem to overwhelm any other design aspects. Sorry for the rant, it's only because I love San Diego that I get so head up about it.
If San Diego has horrible-fake exhibits Ituri than what zoo does actually have good exhibits?That is thats not over seas where I might as well just go to the animals native land if I'm going to have go overseas to some european zoo.
I am so sick of people criticizing the San Diego Zoo. They have plants native to Africa and Asia all over the zoo to add to the realism and in most of the exhibits. The San Diego Zoo has the best hippo exhibit in the country, so please tell me what is wrong with that? And no I don't think Busch gardens has a better one because 1(All thats on shore is a short lawn and hard packed dirt), 2(You can't take a photograph of the hippo with out a roller coaster in the background to ruin the picture, and I have a picture myself to prove that) and 3(There is an overkill amount of tropical fish in the pool, so much that sometimes you can barely get a clear view of the hippos) also there are no native African plants in the Busch exhibit, but there are in the San Diego exhibit. Other than hippos the San Diego Zoo has an array of amazing exhibits which there are too many to name again. If want to include the Wild Animal Park with the zoo then there is really an overload of excellent exhibits. So much that it would take too long to name all of them.
I am so sick of people criticizing the San Diego Zoo. They have plants native to Africa and Asia all over the zoo to add to the realism and in most of the exhibits. The San Diego Zoo has the best hippo exhibit in the country, so please tell me what is wrong with that? And no I don't think Busch gardens has a better one because 1(All thats on shore is a short lawn and hard packed dirt), 2(You can't take a photograph of the hippo with out a roller coaster in the background to ruin the picture, and I have a picture myself to prove that) and 3(There is an overkill amount of tropical fish in the pool, so much that sometimes you can barely get a clear view of the hippos) also there are no native African plants in the Busch exhibit, but there are in the San Diego exhibit. Other than hippos the San Diego Zoo has an array of amazing exhibits which there are too many to name again. If want to include the Wild Animal Park with the zoo then there is really an overload of excellent exhibits. So much that it would take too long to name all of them.
mstickmanp
Well-Known Member
San Diego zoo does not have "horrible-fake exhibits", it's just that they call themselves the best zoo in the world, but cannot make the best exhibits in the world. The exhibits are indeed some of the better ones out there, but with all the money they generate and with the amazing collection they should be making the best exhibits.
Ah, the wonders of opinions. We're here to share, not argue who is right or wrong.
Personally, I tend to side with reduakari and Ituri. When I first visited the SDZ in 1996, I was overwhelmed by the poor exhibits (the monkey and parrot quadrangles were still in use) and had been expecting much more. I think I likened it to having gourmet food in a cafeteria setting ... at the time, the newer exhibits were phenomenal (kopje, Hippo Beach), but the oldness really dragged the place down. I still think it does (are all the cages for the small carnivores really necessary? If they got removed, would anyone care?)
My perspective is similar to Ituri's - it is because I really like the San Diego Zoo that I am critical. And as mstickmanp says, it DOES have enormous potential - what with their climate, budget, and the rest. But no matter how nice it may be, it just doesn't seem to reach its full potential, and this is what disappoints me. (The devil is in the details ... the pipe barrier in the Ituri buffalo exhibit, the fencing around the planters in the Monkey Trails pig exhibits, and the aforementioned hippo/okapi barrier ... the exhibits may be great, but the lack of attention to the little details makes it tough to call them the "best"). On the flip side, the Bronx Zoo may have restrictions imposed by climate, but these 'problems' have led to greater creativity and I feel they have done a much better job of utilizing what they have.
Personally, I tend to side with reduakari and Ituri. When I first visited the SDZ in 1996, I was overwhelmed by the poor exhibits (the monkey and parrot quadrangles were still in use) and had been expecting much more. I think I likened it to having gourmet food in a cafeteria setting ... at the time, the newer exhibits were phenomenal (kopje, Hippo Beach), but the oldness really dragged the place down. I still think it does (are all the cages for the small carnivores really necessary? If they got removed, would anyone care?)
My perspective is similar to Ituri's - it is because I really like the San Diego Zoo that I am critical. And as mstickmanp says, it DOES have enormous potential - what with their climate, budget, and the rest. But no matter how nice it may be, it just doesn't seem to reach its full potential, and this is what disappoints me. (The devil is in the details ... the pipe barrier in the Ituri buffalo exhibit, the fencing around the planters in the Monkey Trails pig exhibits, and the aforementioned hippo/okapi barrier ... the exhibits may be great, but the lack of attention to the little details makes it tough to call them the "best"). On the flip side, the Bronx Zoo may have restrictions imposed by climate, but these 'problems' have led to greater creativity and I feel they have done a much better job of utilizing what they have.
And they are the best, them and the Wild Animal Park both are. Wild Animal Park- best elephants, lions, Indian Rhinos (How many other places allow you to feed Indian Rhinos in a 35-acre exhibit), Black Rhinos- Just had a baby, White Rhinos, Giraffes. At the San Diego Zoo they have the best, nile hippo, pygmy hippo, one of the best tiger, gorilla, bonobo, panda, polar bear, Sun Bear, orangutan, and reptile exhibits. I don't know of any other zoo that has that many exhibits where they are either the best, or one of the best of that kind of animal exhibit. When you think of one please tell me.
Okay:
Bronx Zoo has the best snow leopard exhibit (at least in the US), best red panda exhibit, best gorilla exhibit, best okapi exhibit, best mandrill exhibit, best red river hog exhibit, best Wolf's monkey exhibit, best gibbon exhibit, best Silvered Leaf Monkey exhibit, best Butterfly Garden, best Madagascar exhibit, best naked mole rat exhibit, best baboon exhibit (geladas), best wild dog exhibit, and among the best tiger, hornbill, zebra, Incan tern, African rock python, Burmese python, Asian turtle, tree kangaroo, bee-eater, argus pheasant, and Congo peacock exhibits. Not to mention the best small rodent exhibit ("Mouse House").
At San Diego Tiger River and the Kopje, and to a lesser extent the gorilla rainforest, are all far superior to what has been built (and designed in-house as mentioned earlier) since those early improvements. The giant walk-through aviaries are spectacular, but are much less exciting than they used to be before they added the freeway-like concrete walkways through them to handle the crowds and wheelchair accessibility.
And the Ituri "Forest" really is an aesthetic mess.
Bronx Zoo has the best snow leopard exhibit (at least in the US), best red panda exhibit, best gorilla exhibit, best okapi exhibit, best mandrill exhibit, best red river hog exhibit, best Wolf's monkey exhibit, best gibbon exhibit, best Silvered Leaf Monkey exhibit, best Butterfly Garden, best Madagascar exhibit, best naked mole rat exhibit, best baboon exhibit (geladas), best wild dog exhibit, and among the best tiger, hornbill, zebra, Incan tern, African rock python, Burmese python, Asian turtle, tree kangaroo, bee-eater, argus pheasant, and Congo peacock exhibits. Not to mention the best small rodent exhibit ("Mouse House").
At San Diego Tiger River and the Kopje, and to a lesser extent the gorilla rainforest, are all far superior to what has been built (and designed in-house as mentioned earlier) since those early improvements. The giant walk-through aviaries are spectacular, but are much less exciting than they used to be before they added the freeway-like concrete walkways through them to handle the crowds and wheelchair accessibility.
And the Ituri "Forest" really is an aesthetic mess.
And what zoo has the best hippo exhibit??
I'm enjoying this debate over the merits of the San Diego Zoo, but I'm sure that even that zoo's detractors will admit that it's an amazing zoo and one of the best on the planet. I honestly think that the Bronx and San Diego are clearly the two best in North America, and I've made it clear that I support the notion that San Diego is #1. However, the fact that it is either the best or close to the best should be an incentive for the zoo to design superlative exhibits that we can all agree on and obviously some folks think that the zoo could be doing better. I can't wait until the first reviews of Elephant Mesa start pouring in here at ZooBeat, which of course will be known as ZooChat by then.
Even though I adore San Diego I fully admit that the series of 5 small carnivore cages are atrocious, and much of both cat and bear canyon could either be demolished or extensively renovated. The Bronx is a brilliant zoo, but the polar bear grotto is beyond belief when compared to the spendour and beauty that surround it. I really feel that the weather is a massive dividing factor between the zoos, as I shudder to think of all the northern zoos around the world locking up many of their animals in the winter. In San Diego practically every day is perfect weather for walking around a zoo, and the open-air concept is amazing.
Even though I adore San Diego I fully admit that the series of 5 small carnivore cages are atrocious, and much of both cat and bear canyon could either be demolished or extensively renovated. The Bronx is a brilliant zoo, but the polar bear grotto is beyond belief when compared to the spendour and beauty that surround it. I really feel that the weather is a massive dividing factor between the zoos, as I shudder to think of all the northern zoos around the world locking up many of their animals in the winter. In San Diego practically every day is perfect weather for walking around a zoo, and the open-air concept is amazing.
@okapir: I object that Disney has the best hippo exhibit. I still think San Diego has the best- just because of a little fence in the back of the exhibit? That makes no sense.
@Snowleopard: I agree with you that Bronx and San Diego are the two best. I think San Diego should bull-doze that cat cages and build a Snow Lepard exhibit like at Bronx Zoo. I know that the Jaguars will be part of Elephant Odyssey. They could make some sort of Asian Highland exhibit combing the Snow Leopards and Chinese leopards. Then it will really seal its spot in the #1.
Bronx would be better if they built a pathway around the Asian Monorail. The monorail could stop at different animals, and people could get back on when the monorail comes around again. This is because the only flaw to the monorail is the lack of time not the visitor gets to see the animals, not the exhibits themselves.
@Snowleopard: I agree with you that Bronx and San Diego are the two best. I think San Diego should bull-doze that cat cages and build a Snow Lepard exhibit like at Bronx Zoo. I know that the Jaguars will be part of Elephant Odyssey. They could make some sort of Asian Highland exhibit combing the Snow Leopards and Chinese leopards. Then it will really seal its spot in the #1.
Bronx would be better if they built a pathway around the Asian Monorail. The monorail could stop at different animals, and people could get back on when the monorail comes around again. This is because the only flaw to the monorail is the lack of time not the visitor gets to see the animals, not the exhibits themselves.
Disney has the better exhibit because of its naturalistic design and the ability to house the somewhat gregarious hippos in a more natural social setting...they have the ability to house over 20 hippos! San Diego's can barely hold 3. It really has nothing to do with a fence...I think hippos could care less.
Hippos are very happy in pairs as well. San Diego has the nicer exhibit.
I am convinced the whole zoobeat is against the San Diego Zoo except Snowleopard.
I am convinced the whole zoobeat is against the San Diego Zoo except Snowleopard.
mstickmanp
Well-Known Member
I'm not against SD zoo. I've only visited once and I was really small, so now it's my dream to go visit again. The thing is that SD zoo should be doing way better in exhibit design, especially when they call themselves the best of the best.