San Diego Zoo Reptile Walk Review

REPTILE WALK:

Went to the zoo today and saw the new reptile walk, decided to post about some of the changes and give my kind of take on it.

First of all, the entrance to the boardwalk starts just right of the leopard tortoise exhibit. The leopard tortoise exhibit is slightly renovated, there seems to be new rock work on the back, but there is a new shed on the right since the back is where the new walk runs. The older railings, that have been there since the existence of time, have been repainted to go along with the materials and color palette of the renovations.

The walk starts out under an arch with contemporary, cut out sign that matches the signs throughout the new buildings. The boardwalk itself, flows down a landscape with a great view of the canyon and palms. Being (supposedly) ADA compliant, the walkway allows for better access for persons with disabilities and allows for better scenic views of the landscape, botanic gardens, and the previous oval exhibits.

The path before reaching the Amphibians and Natives building passes by a dried stream bed with California natives and drought tolerant plants such as Juncus and Elegia that look like wetland plants. Clearly something the intention was meant to teach people about threats wetlands (that would result in the dried one shown), but the one sign in the area is clearly lacking in tying in the area with a cohesive message (like many things at the SDZ).

Now in the first set of buildings, the buildings are awkwardly set side by side so it is a bit difficult for traffic flow to follow along the exhibits in a linear fashion. Some of the rock work in the terrariums are a bit messy, but overall, the exhibits are well planted and are adequate for their inhabitants.

Perhaps my biggest complaint about these enclosures is that they are too low! I know we debated about this on the forum already, but they are for sure way too low for any human being above 5 feet tall. I am about 5' 11" and the exhibits start below my knees and would end below my chin. I don't think it is as good as some may think for children, only kids in strollers who are two feet off the ground. Most of the children's eye level were at 3/4 above the base, which I don't think is ideal. I find that the power of terraniums/aquariums is from being up close against the glass, resting your arms on the ledge, and being submerged into another habitat with animals up close, not looking down into it. I think this would be a case where standards exist for a reason, even though the thinking behind it may have had good intentions. Second complaint is the information panels, which don't give much information about the animals and just give a stream of facts about herps, not a cohesive message that tells me why any of these matter.

Still the collection of amphibians here is great and the native species are some great sights. Its good to finally see Horned lizards on display in a nice enclosure. The materials for the buildings are contemporary and the keeper areas are probably a lot nicer, as the Klauber buildings were rather lacking in the latest furnishings.

At the end of the exhibits, the walkway turn into Chinese alligator enclosure. A large enclosure for these small crocodillians, it is decently planted and has two viewing areas. The first one looks down on them, and the second is lower and closer the pond. Before the second viewing area of the Chinese alligators, the boardwalk connects with the old mesa and allows for visitors to go and see the tortoises and iguanas. The viewing into the iguana exhibits is much better with planters on the sides and the exhibits have more shade as some of the Jacarandas have been transplanted into them.

If you continue to follow the boardwalk, you'll pass the Chinese alligators and head to the turtle building. This is where the exhibit design really sings, as the turtle exhibits are of varying size and are much larger. The fact that it is lone building, allows for better traffic flow and a great landscape of palm trees on the opposite side. With rare snake-necked turtles and a baby matamata, the animal viewing is great.

The old gharial exhibit is pretty much the same, except they removed the steep sand bank on the opposite side of the viewer and put in a larger, flatter one. A good basking site for crocodilians and possible nesting location for Indian gharials who will hopefully make it back here. The Australian freshwater crocs are a good filler while they aren't here and the collection of turtles is still amazing.

Continuing, the tortoise enclosure fences have been repainted like the Leopard tortoise enclosure, and don't seem as old. The oval exhibits with the iguanas have also been repainted and have gunite along the outside. All changes surprisingly work better and make the exhibits much more enjoyable. One complaint is that the exhibit with the aloes only holds leopard tortoise now, when it used to hold plenty of lizards from South Africa. Its a large enclosure and the viewing opportunities are much better with multi-species.

Overall, I like the new reptile walk very much. The interpretive displays and terrariums in the first two buildings are the only things that bother me. The opportunities to involve landscape and better views throughout improved the space a lot. On a scale from A-F, I would give it a B+.

Also, I am surprised no on has thought about this, but does anyone know what happened to the Tuataras now? They don't have a building anymore

 

@Otter Lord: Thank you very much for your review. I share your opinion about the missing of the lizards in the leopard tortoise exhibit. Do you know (or anyone else), why they have replaced them (= the lizards)?

 

Aren't the tuataras in a building behind the scenes near where the old CRES was? They were never on display in the old Reptile Mesa exhibits, at least not for the last couple decades. There was just a big obnoxious sign with a picture of a tuatara saying "we have tuataras and you can't see them!". Hopefully that sign is gone.

 

Terrific review! Thanks for the update on Reptile Walk and it is interesting to note your observations about the depth of the terrariums.

 

The whole building is gone, they were in the building that had the tiny rock iguana exhibit in it actually. The back of the klauber buildings all connected and in the last building, there were in an enclosure filled with dirt and burrows. I might have pictures somewhere.

@zoomaniac: I have no clue, it was a great exhibit for multiple small lizard species. A lot of people liked looking for all the lizards in that enclosure. Now they just walk by because all they can see is an empty enclosure with one leopard tortoise in it.

 

Even though their recent exhibits/renovations haven't been that major in many cases or well received by many on this site, I do think the zoo has improved a lot over the past 4 years.

This exhibit seems like a major upgrade.

Panda Trek is a major upgrade simply because of the difference in red panda habitats going from awful to very good. The mang viper exbibit is also good, it's nice to have a themed complex, and the traffic issue for the giant pandas has been alleviated.

EO, while being a failure or disappointment in certain respects, is a huge upgrade for the elephants and is somewhere between average and great for most of the animals in it. The theme is pretty cool imo and I prefer exhibit complexes to random exhibits. EO also allowed for a better home for the rhinos.

More improvements are on the way as well.

This zoo has been and continues to get rid of problem areas, even if they aren't doing it in the best way.

 

Thanks for the review Otter Lord. On my recent visit this past Friday the 10th, I took numerous photographs. Your review now allows me to change the caption on several photos of the gharial habitat to Freshwater Crocodiles. Signage there was my one complaint.

 

The tuatara exhibit definitely wasn't viewable by the public. I complained to the zoo about this, pointing out that my membership fees were helping pay for the tuatara program, and was told that the New Zealand government wouldn't let the zoo display the tuataras. That seems weird. The Dallas Zoo apparently has a public tuatara exhibit.

 

Yeah, that's the building. It hooked up with the Klauber buildings. I went in on a tour and got to go into the back and see the Tuataras. I think the building is still there, there's just a fence surrounding it now instead of the Klauber buildings.