San Diego Zoo Africa Rocks Reviews and discussion

New poll regarding favorite Africa Rocks zone:
What is your favorite zone of Africa Rocks?

 

Four of the 5 species of lemurs were on exhibit yesterday. There were ring-tailed lemurs on exhibit with the blue-eyed black lemurs in the south exhibit. There were 3 species together in the north exhibit, ring-tailed, red-ruffed, and the red-collared lemur. The 2 sifakas might be on exhibit by the end of the week.

 

Although he may delay, the holy sifaka will arrive and bring us redemption. Never lose faith!

 

I've been mulling over this latest addition to the zoo now that I've had the chance to see it in person, and my immediate thoughts always come back to this: It would've been a really, really amazing exhibit out at the Wild Animal Park. Say, out near the end of the African Outpost or even where the elephants currently are housed. Tiger River/Lost Forest is wonderfully immersive and I can forget I'm in a major metropolitan region. Africa Rocks not so much. I can't forget that I'm walking through a zoo no matter how cool that waterfall looks. I'm not sure that will change even when the vegetation does grow in.

I don't know why but the conspicuous absence of a subspecies designation on the leopard exhibit is particularly galling.

The lemur exhibit is still subpar compared to even San Francisco's.

 

Agree with above assessment, but the problem with Tiger River is the path is too narrow (and too steep) for the crowds at this zoo. That is why it will never be replicated. I do agree, however, that for the amount of money spent this new area is good but not great (certainly not ground-breaking or world class). The leopard exhibit animals are also a source of frustration.

 

I visited Africa Rocks a couple months ago myself and here is my review of the exhibit

Kopje
I'm honestly not a big fan of this area. I do NOT like their bateleur eagle exhibit. The viewing could be so much better in my opinion. I also think the servals could have a little bigger exhibit.

Ethiopian Highlands
I LOVE this exhibit!! I love how the hamadryas baboons have so much space and I love how the Geladas are with the Nubian Ibex. The exhibits looked great and had a lot of vegetation in the exhibits themselves.

Acadia Woodlands
this exhibit to me could have been better in my opinion. I loved the aviary but I personally thought there leopards should have more features. They could of had more vegetation and I would of like more places where they can go really high. The viewing for their vervet monkeys wasn't the best and I wish they could do some minor improvements to the area.

Madagascar Forest
I personally thought this exhibit was good and confusing. I liked how they mixed different species of lemurs together however I was confused to why there was an exhibit for a Serval? I don't recall that they're native to Madagascar but I could be wrong.

West African Forest
I actually liked this exhibit. I thought the reptiles had a lot of shade and they were very active when I was there.

Cape Fynbos
This is my favorite exhibit in all of Africa Rocks and I think its the best exhibit the zoo has there at the moment. I love how much water there penguins have and I like how there penguins are mixed in with species of fish like leopard sharks. However I am disappointed that there sharks weren't native or found in Africa. However they did have a lot of species of fish with them and I'm hoping there native to Africa's waters and not California waters.

Overall
I would give this exhibit a B+ or an A-. It could use a little work still but overall I think it turned out really good.

 

Does anyone have a full species list for the aviary in Africa Rocks?

 

The comments on this photo I took of the aviary in June 2018 lists the species at that time: Africa Rocks aviary | ZooChat

 

What were your overall thoughts on the aviary? I found it to be a very nice enclosure, with interesting species and lots of flying space.

 

It is very nice indeed. You could spend an entire day at the four main aviaries at San Diego Zoo and thoroughly enjoy yourself without even seeing the rest of the zoo.