Zoo Map (November 2013)

I'm constantly fascinated by zoo maps and in my collection of around 820 I have two from San Francisco Zoo. I've only visited the zoo once (in spring of 2006) and while it has been almost 8 full years since my tour the zoo has only added Grizzly Gulch as a major new animal exhibit in all of that time. A stagnant, outdated set of enclosures has only worsened in the years since my visit, with many issues and problems surrounding the zoo that have been well documented on this site.

When I visited in 2006 the Feline Conservation Center was still open to the public, and the basic cages held snow leopards and ocelots in the southern portion of the zoo. Also, between the hippo enclosure and Grizzly Gulch there used to be 4 hoofstock paddocks open to the public, as well as two more field exhibits between the Lion House and Bear Country. That makes for 6 full exhibits that have closed, with minor changes added such as Komodo Alley instead of Lorikeets, Chacoan peccaries instead of warthogs, and a new playground. The $2 million Grizzly Gulch (which equals pennies compared to the half-a-billion-dollar California Academy of Sciences project in the same city) is really the only substantial improvement to the zoo in close to a decade.

San Francisco Zoo is not all doom and gloom in terms of the quality of some of the exhibits, as the African Region (orange on the map) is very impressive and even the almost 35 year-old "Gorilla Preserve" is large and spacious. Lemur Forest is decent and a few bits and bobs are adequate, but a large-scale overhaul of this zoo with plunging attendance in an expensive city would cost an absolute fortune. Does anyone know a billionaire that could revitalize the establishment?