Kay so I did the segway tour yesterday and I wanted to get you guys a review in case anyone is interested. I am uploading tons of photos right now as I type this, so you can check the gallery if you want some pictures of the Asia area. Okay so this tour usually costs about $80 and its 2 hours that include a tour around the East Africa section up into Asia right before the bridge near the tigers where you then turn back to the beginning. There is also a training session before that teaches you how to use a segway and safety. Safety was particularly very big as the park doesn't want any litigation issues and lots of paperwork involved, but I didn't find it to be a big deal. The length of the training session varies because everyone has to be cleared before the tour starts. The good news is that not many people take these tours so you might be the only group on the tour. For those that haven't ridden a segway, they are very fun to ride. Its like skateboarding and driving at the same time, so it does take some balance but its really easy to operate once you get the hang of it. The segways are really neat because they are operated by pressure from your feet. So you lean forward to go forward and back to go back and turning the handle fixture to turn. Though after the two our tour, you will be tired as if you have been walking a lot, so its not like you are riding a vehicle. The overall tour is fairly good. Its probably the best way you can go see the Asia filed exhibits besides those photo caravan tours. Our tour guides were pretty knowledgeable, more so than the JiA tour guides. Very nice people too. As far as seeing the animals, you do get fairly close, like closer than the old monorail. There are several stops along the tour where you can lean up your segway and take pictures. So it's better than the monorail because you can actually stop for a bit, but you can't stop for an unlimited amount of time like you would for an exhibit throughout the zoo. Taking this tour was very memorable. I actually could smell the dung of the animals, which I probably haven't there since the old monorail. There's a much better view of the Scimitar Horned Oryx and Barbary Red Deer in North Africa than JiA. It was also good to see the Pere David's Deer in Central Asia again. Sarus Cranes could be heard from one of the bomas which are going to be on the exhibit soon. A new Javan Banteng bull has also been put in the exhibit and now there are a bunch of pregnant Banteng in the enclosure. Also the Urial and Mouflon both had babies that were running about. I always considered Asia to be my favorite part of the WGASA bush tour and it was well missed. I was glad to see some of the rare Asian animals again like Przewalksi's Wild Horse, Arabian Oyrxs(which had babies too), and Markhor. Species list again: Central Asia: Javan Banteng Hog Deer Mandarin Sika Caucasian Urial Pere David's Deer Sarus Cranes Asian Plains: Indian Rhinoceros Barashinga Indochinese Sika Chital Indian Guar Nilgai Blackbuck Armenian Mouflon White-Napped Cranes Malayan Sambar Persian Goitered Gazelle Side Exhibits: Przewalksi's Wild Horse Arabian Oryx White-lipped Deer and Markhor (together)
Excellent review - thank you! On the old monorail there were two separate Asia field exhibits, but one of these (the one you still see on JIA) has been converted to a central African exhibit. So I thought there was only one Asia now, but you still describe two. Did they break the remaining one in half or what?
Yeah they broke the remaining one in half so that its Central Asia. Its pretty small when compared to the other one but still a good size exhibit for all the species it has.
Actually, my understanding is that Central Asia comprises a chunk of what used to be East Africa, and a chunk of what used to be the Asian Plains. I could be wrong, but this is my understanding of what happened.
Thanks for the review Otter Lord. I resisted taking the tour because none of the photos showed guests with cameras and I wanted to be able to take photos. Can you take a reasonably sized DLSR or are you limited to a small point and shoot?
You can look at the pictures and judge for yourself when they go up. It takes a really long time to process the photos for some reason. They encourage bringing your camera You can take whatever Camera you want as long as you can still ride on the segway with it. If your camera can go around your neck its better to hold onto and if you're good enough at riding a segway, you can snap photos while riding with one hand.
So the questions I haven't been able to surmise the answers to are, what kind of path is present for the Segways? Is it paved? Or do you just ride along the dirt trail where the monorail used to run? Have they removed the monorail track?
Its both paved and dirt, the monorail track is gone and the path is mainly used by keepers for service roads to to the field exhibits. @ZYBen, no there are no chimapanzees riding segways. But the Bonobos might be given a shot.
I guess the question that comes to mind, is it such that it wouldn't actually be too difficult to run some trams along the Asia track, for a "Journey into Asia", or not quite?
Probably, though the difficulty I'd say is building the station and amenities nearby. The master plan design suggests this spot to be the access road behind the current Tiger exhibit and there isn't much there. If it were to happen it would probably be after the new Tiger exhibit is built. The park also wants to finish all the new JiA exhibits before starting a new rid; the new exhibits which are taking longer and more funding than expected. Another problem is that Central Asia and East Africa run into each other so this would mean altering this border for the tour road to reach full circle. Like here: http://www.zoochat.com/297/6-12-10-segway-tour-border-155273/ That's also the only access point to get into the Asia field exhibits for keepers too. The keepers work in sections so that several of them handle East Africa, Central Asia, and Asian Plains enclosures. So that will also play a part.
Otter Lord, I have one additional question about the Asian exhibits...what is the order of the hillside exhibits, going from west to east. The furtherst East is the former Grevy's zebra exhibit which now apparently has the P. horses. Then there were two more paddocks one for kiang and one for Somali wild ass. Then there was an enclosure filled with date palms for Arabian oryx. Which of these enclosures is now oryx, and which is white-lipped deer and markhor?
The enclosure for the Kiang is hardly used now apparently, but I think they switch off Onager and Kiang. Somalian Wild ass are now in the JiA tour and various off exhibit sites. The old Oryx exhibit now holds White-lipped deer and markhor. There are pictures in the gallery if you'd like to see.
