San Diego Wild Animal Park

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San Diego Wild Animal Park

Sign inside the park
Date opened	1972
Location	San Pasqual Valley, San Diego, California, USA
Land area	700 acres (2.8 km²)
Coordinates	33°5′51.9396″N, 116°59′58.674″W
# of Animals	3000
# of Species	400
Accreditations/ Memberships	AZA
Website
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The San Diego Wild Animal Park is a zoo in the San Pasqual Valley area of San Diego, California. It is one of the largest tourist attractions in the city and Southern California. The Park houses a fabulous array of wild and endangered animals including species from the continents of Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America, and Australia. The park is in a semi-arid environment, based around Nairobi village in Kenya, and one of its most notable features is the large Wgasa Railway which explores 700 acres worth of free range exhibits. These free-range enclosures house such animals as cheetahs, antelopes, lions, giraffes, okapis, elephants, zebras, Przewalski's horses, rhinos, and bonobos. The park is also noted for its California condor breeding program, possibly the most successful program in the country, as well as an amazing collection of rare hornbills.

The park, visited by 2 million people annually, has an area of 1,800 acres (7 km²) and, in 2005, housed 3000 animals of more than 400 species plus 3,500 species of unique plants.

Depending on the season, the park has about 400 to 600 employees. The park is also Southern California's quarantine center for zoo animals imported into the United States through San Diego.

The San Diego Wild Animal Park has the world's largest veterinary hospital. Next door to the hospital is the Center for Reasearch on Endangered Species which holds the park's Frozen Zoo.

Both the park and the San Diego Zoo are run by the Zoological Society of San Diego. The Wild Animal Park is 32 miles (51 km) away from the zoo, at 15500 San Pasqual Valley Road east of Escondido, California along CA-78.

1 Park History
2 Attractions at the Wild Animal Park
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Park History

The San Diego Wild Animal Park was the dream of former president of the San Diego Zoological Society Dr. Charles Schroeder. Dr. Schroeder dreamed of a supplementary breeding facility to give extra space that the zoo could not provide for breeding large animals and ungulates. Eventually, his dream evolved into a separate facility which was also opened to the public.

[edit] Attractions at the Wild Animal Park

The park's most famous, and popular, exhibits, are the open-range enclosures. Visitors are taken on a monorail to view various habitats representing the Asian Plains, East Africa (the largest of the enclosures; it alone is larger than the San Diego Zoo), North Africa, Asian Waterhole, Southern Africa, and the Mountain Habitat. A number of smaller enclosures visible only from the monorail are home to Grevy's zebras, Somali wild asses, kiangs (one of the world's only captive populations of this endangered wild equine), Arabian oryx, gorals, Japanese serows, black rhinoceroses, bonobos, and Przewalski's wild horses.

Species of note in the open enclosures include two subspecies of giraffe, rhinos (the wild animal park has the world's most successful breeding program for Southern white rhinos and is the only New World zoo to have Northern white rhinos; Indian rhinos are also on display), gaur, vultures, Cape buffalo, markhor sheep, and many species of antelope, gazelle, wild cattle, and deer. As of November 2006, the monorail route is undergoing renovation and rerouting to bring visitors a fuller experience. In addition the update will feature two separate routes, splitting the attraction into African and Asian portions.

The Park's Nairobi Village houses numerous exhibits for smaller animals. Among these are meerkats, pudu, an African Aviary, lemurs, flamingos, babirusa, red river hogs, and bee eaters. A large lagoon is home to numerous species of waterfowl, among them shoebill storks. Lorikeet Landing and Hidden Jungle display feedable lorikeets and butterflies, respectively. Also, there is a nursery where visitors can watch baby animals being hand-reared as well as a nearby petting corral. Finally, a gorilla habitat houses a troop of Western lowland gorillas.

Condor Ridge displays endangered North American desert wildlife. The featured species are California condors (the wild animal park was the key force in the recovery effort for these birds and this is the only place in the world where the public can see them in captivity) and desert bighorn sheep. Other species displayed include alpomado falcons, thick billed parrots, prairie dogs, black footed ferrets, magpies, and desert tortoises.

Heart of Africa is one of the park's feature exhibits. Visitors go down a trail which replicates changing life zones in Africa. Since a real African trail would have no signs, visitors instead get information about the animals encountered from a booklet they receive at the exhibit entrance. The exhibit begins with scrub animals - vultures, lesser kudu, and giant eland. It then progresses to forest (okapi, duikers, and wattled cranes). It showcases plains animals - bontebok, warthogs, ground hornbills, cheetahs, and a research camp) against a backdrop of the open-range East Africa exhibit. There is a giraffe feeding station where visitors can purchase biscuits to feed the giraffes. A central lagoon displays lesser and greater flamingos, waterfowl, and an island with colobus monkeys.

The safari trail takes visitors past some highlight species which are also seen from the monorail tour - lions (in the new lion camp exhibit), Sumatran tigers, and separate herds of Asian and African elephants.

The San Diego Wild Animal Park is also noted for its extensive botanical gardens, many of which are their own attractions separate from the animal exhibits.

[edit] References

Myers, Douglas (1999). Mister Zoo: The Life and Legacy of Dr. Charles Schroeder: The World-Famous San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park's Legendary Director. The Zoological Society of San Diego. ISBN 0-911461-15-9.