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Zooplantman

Elephants, EO

Is this the greatest Asian elephant exhibit ever? I have to ask

Elephants, EO
Zooplantman, 28 Sep 2010
    • Zooplantman
      Is this the greatest Asian elephant exhibit ever? I have to ask
    • snowleopard
      Or one of the worst?:) Comparing this Saharan desert paddock to the lush, green, much larger elephant paddocks in North Carolina, Nashville and Dallas...wow. From the many photos of Elephant Odyssey here on ZooChat it appears as if San Diego took Elephant Mesa and just made it larger, and that is not necessarily a positive step towards the future.
    • mweb08
      Well the larger part is, as is the tremendous pool and state of the art barn, but yes, some grass and trees would have been nice.
    • Otter Lord
      This is a bad looking photo of EO. When was this photo taken? Last time I was there in August, there was grass starting to grow in.
    • SMR
      Are you sure this is San Diego? Jodrell Bank is located in Cheshire, although admittedly their elephant herd is often difficult to spot. ;)
    • Zooplantman
      Taken third week of September.
      Actually, the landscape architect for the project was saying that grass was not intended as it would require too much irrigation.
    • Otter Lord
      Hmm, we could still get some cycles of some grass in there. Is that and the destructiveness of elephants the reason why no plants were used in the exhibit?
    • Zooplantman
      That's the story

      Of course, the SDWAP (now the SDZSP) just spent a fortune adding irrigation to the big savanna
    • Otter Lord
      Is the landscape around EO irrigated? It uses all drought-tolerant plants, right? Since irrigation is an issue, they still could have used drought-tolerant plants and maybe even teach some people about sustainable landscape solutions in the process.
    • Arizona Docent
      I assume you are being sarcastic (as it is clearly the biggest waste of money in the history of zoos).

      And I was also there last summer and I can assure you there is no grass growing in here.
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  • Category:
    San Diego Zoo
    Uploaded By:
    Zooplantman
    Date:
    28 Sep 2010
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