San Diego Zoo Safari Park San Diego Safari Park News 2021

Elephant Valley at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park

I don’t know if this was ever previously announced but the safari park has started to raise money for Elephant Valley

 

Yeah, that's been known for a while. Sorry bud. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Just found out through docents that Oshana, the female Lion who was with her sister Mina, had passed away in May of this year Mina is rotated out with Izu and Etosha, haven’t seen the Stripes Hyenas yet out in Lion Camp.

 

do you know if Mina will get a mate now or move to another facility?

 

She’s a senior lion and it seems like she’s staying here, they don’t want to chance introducing her to another lion as she’s old. I believe she’s in her late teens although I didn’t ask for her exact age, just from the talks I had with docents about her :/

 

I doubt Mina will be getting a new mate or will be moved because of her age, I believe she is around 17-18 now. They might try to introduce her to Etosha and reintroduce her to Izu though.

 

That’s a no go for sure, at least right now. Izu was introduced back to his sister Etosha when Mbari died. When they tried to do BTS intros between Etosha and the sisters, they didn’t get along. And due to the fact Izu did and smells like her, Mina and Oshana were to be kept separate from both Izu and Etosha. They may try again later but after multiple visits I’ve heard the same story and it seems that Mina is a loner now :/

 

That’s unfortunate. I’m not sure if I remember this right, but I think I heard that they were afraid that Mina and Oshana would “gang up” on Etosha. Now that Oshana is gone, they might have more success but who knows. Nevertheless, all the lions at Lion Camp are elderly, so sadly we won’t have any of them for much longer.

 

How about they just mix her with the hyenas (joke). That’s really a shame though.

 

San Diego Zoo Safari Park's Tiger Trail exhibit closes after tiger tests positive for COVID-19 -

A tiger has tested positive for Covid-19 at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park

 

The Sumatran tiger habitat has been closed after at least one of the 6 tigers tested positive for covid. They assume they all have it. They are lethargic and have a loss of appetite but are otherwise fine. The exhibit will stayed closed until further notice.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article253250678.html

 

0.1 Southern Tamandua was born on July 21: San Diego Zoo Safari Park welcomes new southern tamandua pup - California News Times

 

Some interesting updates from my visit today:

• The habitat that held the trumpeter swans at the front of the park is now home to black crowned cranes.
• Nairobi Village is closed off since there is some sort of construction going on in that area.
• The former giant eland habitat is now home to a small herd of addra gazelle and a single addax (both still unsigned), while the former bontebok habitat remains empty.
• The Petting Kraal and Bat House are now both (finally) open after being closed since the beginning of the pandemic. However, the Bird Show and Lemur Walk are both still closed.
• A retired dromedary camel is now living with the Somali wild asses (that seems like an odd combo lol).
• It seems like the inhabitants of the African Forest habitat in the savanna are always changing, last time I visited there were bongo, red-fronted gazelle, and roan antelope. This time the red lechwe herd was in the habitat along with a couple roan and what looked like a single female sitatunga.
• A pair of unsigned grey-winged trumpeters are now living with the Guianan toucanets.
• I also found out that there are two new tigers that recently arrived from San Francisco, a male named Teddy (he's actually returning since he used to live here and had a couple cubs back in 2015 & 2016) and a female named Jillian. Sadly, I couldn't see them since Tiger Trail is closed off, hopefully all the tigers recover from COVID soon!

 

Where are the Guianan Toucanets housed at? I plan to go back when Tiger Trail is open, I tend to have luck photographing their tigers and would like to photograph them too also is Hidden Jungle closed still too?

 

The toucanets are housed right next to the Toco toucans on the trail up to Condor Ridge. I'm not 100% sure about it but it looked like Hidden Jungle is still closed, sorry I wasn't really paying attention when I walked past that area.

 

Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere, but is the Africa Tram reopened yet?

 

It is indeed open as of now, @Animals R AMAZING! mentioned changes to the African Forest section that can only be seen from the Africa Tram or doing a special tour as it is at the far end of the South Africa field exhibit

 

Hey @Julio C Castro @Animals R AMAZING! since you have both been to the Safari Park and zoo recently would you mind helping updating this list: San Diego Zoo Safari Park Complete Species List [San Diego Zoo Safari Park]
Also this one for the zoo:
San Diego Zoo Complete Species List [San Diego Zoo]

 

Yeah I can update it with what I know ASAP but for sure don’t know about what bird species are kept on Hidden Jungle as of now, did do the Butterfly Jungle tour and mostly photographed the butterflies. Will be going back in about a month to both parks so I can make a better assessment then

 

I can help with that, I actually was trying to keep track of the species they have yesterday so I will post an update in a little bit.