Sumatran Tiger news: Two 3-month-old Sumatran tigers bounded into their new home Friday at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Joanne and Majel followed their mother, Delta, and explored the three-acre tiger exhibit for the first time. The Zoo Safari Park, which used to be known as the San Diego Wild Animal Park, is raising funds to build a new forested tiger exhibit that will include climbing rocks, swimming pools, trees and long grass. The new exhibit will put guests at eye level with the big cats and other animals. The park is home to six members of the species, and 23 have been born there over the years.
$9 million has been pledged to the new exhibit by a couple who wish to stay anonymous. Safari Park to get $9 million gift for new tiger exhibit | UTSanDiego.com
Truly great news. Of course 2014 (completion date) is still a ways off, but at least there seems to be a definite deadline in sight for the first time.
Fund raising has now been completed, with groundbreaking for the exhibit due in December. Safari Park gets money it needs for tiger exhibit
Really happy to see they reached their goal before the deadline and that they've already broken ground. Bummer, though, it won't open until Spring 2014. That seems so far off. ======== Work began Wednesday on a five-acre Sumatran tiger habitat at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, to be named after movie producer Thomas Tull and his wife, Alba. The exhibit will be named the Tull Family Tiger Trail to honor the man behind the “Dark Knight” films and other popular movies like “The Hangover” and “300.” The Tulls gave a challenge grant in May to San Diego Zoo Global, contingent on securing an additional $2 million from other donors to complete the funding of the $19.6 million project. ======== Does that mean the Tulls are the anonymous donors of the $9mil? Or did they put up the rest of the money that didn't cover the anonymous donor's $9mil and the $2mil secured by public donations? It's kind of confusing to me. I had thought about donating, but since my own local zoo is also fund-raising for a new tiger exhibit, I decided to donate to them.
No kidding! And while I live just a tad bit closer than you, I've been wanting to force myself to start visiting other zoos rather than keep going to San Diego all the time (I live in Arizona), but I must go see the new tiger exhibit. <sigh>
I don't know if this had been mentioned before, but according the the zoo's Facebook page, the exhibit will have underwater viewing.
I have not heard that before. Could be cool, but only if you happen to be at the exhibit while a tiger chooses to be in that pond. I wonder if they are still on track for Spring 2014, which is not that far away. I had kind of put this whole project out of my mind and for some reason think of it as a long way off. Next Spring is closer than I realized.
I forgot to mention that the facebook page also says that it will open Summer of 2014, so it has been delayed a bit.
I was given notice of progress photos of Tiger Trails at the Park through flickr. Thought I'd share. Flickr: San Diego Zoo Global's Photostream
Only the first three photos appear to be of the exhibit site, but what is there looks very nice. I think this will be a top notch exhibit.
Forgive me, AD. I should've made note of that. Thanks! It looks to be shaping up quite nicely. One of the water features, looks impressive at this stage. It should pan out nicely and give the tigers enriching lives, as well as flexibility for the park to shift animals around.
did anyone ever see like the latest species list for the Tiger Trail? The new master plan has no labels of the reptiles or deer that were mentioned earlier in the design process. I was just wondering if they got removed from the project or what?
