The Future of the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park » San Diego Wild Animal Park

The Future of the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park
09-10-2008

From the April 2008 Zoonooz

I find the ommission of an Asian tram tour most interesting in this.

09-10-2008

I'll need to look, but I'm pretty sure there has been some kind of mention since last April about an Asian tour.

10-10-2008

During my last visit to the WAP in 2005, they told me about their plans to make the east african exhibit smaller for a new asian exhibit. I don't like that plans, because the east african exhibit is one of the best hoofed stock exhibits in the world, its phantastic. So it would be very sad, making it smaller for another asian exhibit.

10-10-2008

I hate to tell you, but they have already reduced the size of the East Africa field exhibit.

Okapikpr, the only references I have seen have been in relation to the Savannah Safari upcharge golf-cart tours which were also being offered around the Asian exhibit.

31-10-2008

Unfortunately there is no funding yet for the Asia portion of the tour. As a not-for-profit the San Diego Zoo can only focus on one project at a time. Right now its Elephant Odyssey at the Zoo, but the Wild Animal Park is working on the additional eight additional exhibits as part of Journey Into Africa. And the Park is preparing a fund raising campaign for a new tiger exhibit! There are many good changes coming down the pipeline for the animals.

31-10-2008

Is the new tiger exhibit a renovation of the old lion/tiger exhibits or will it be in a new location?

31-10-2008

Also have you heard anything further about them putting dholes on display? I've seen that the former lion exhibit in Cat Canyon next to the Sumatran tigers is now listed on the map as "Future Chinese Dhole Exhibit"

01-11-2008

As far as I know there is no longer going to be a riding asian tram tour. Tiger Trails is replacing that project, so it'll be a walking tour of the Asian areas. The concept plans I've seen so far look great! I'm not sure if the tigers will be in the same area or not, but either way it looks like the renovations that are going to be done will make it a new exhibit.

01-11-2008

Tiger Trails! This is big. I assume there will be other species involved with Tiger Trails? According to the plans, does it look like another Heart of Africa or a Lion Camp?

01-11-2008

If it's a walking trail then that is the best possible news! I'm not a huge fan of monorail or tram tours where visitors can see animals for literally 60 seconds...and then they are gone from sight. A walking path will allow many of the Asian animals to be seen up close and personal.

01-11-2008

That sounds great. I can't wait to find out more. So you're sure that it's instead of the tram tour and not in addition to the tram tour?

01-11-2008

Yes, I'm sure it will be instead of the tram and not in addition. I'm sure there will be some complaints about that, but I definitely think a walking tour will be much better too.
There will be more species involved other than just tigers. Part of it is supposed to involve combining the two big elephant exhibits into one. There is supposed to be a point in the trail where, if the elephants want to move from one half of the exhibit to the other, the walking path will get blocked so that they can walk across right in front of the guests. I think that sounds pretty cool, but plans can change. The original idea was for the trail to include a bridge so that elephants could walk underneath guests when they wanted to move between yards, but that wasn't feasable.
There are other species that will be included, but they're not coming to mind right now. I want to say the dholes might be included, but I'm not sure about that. There's also supposed to be a walkthrough aviary in the plan.

01-11-2008

Excellent, thank you for the information djaeon!

01-11-2008

Next to the sumatran tiger exhibit in the SDWAP map it says that it will be a Chinese Dhole exhibit.

Welcome to the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park!

02-11-2008

Awesome thanks for the info! The other nice part about a walking tour is that it won't be another upcharge$$$