I will be heading to the zoo on Tuesday and will post pictures in the gallery. I would have gone sooner but we had family in town. From my previous trip to see the West African Forest I was able to get a good look at Madagascar. I will say that in person, the netting is not as much of an eye sore as they appear in the video and pictures. The exhibits were also larger than you would think. I will try to give a good sense of scale in the photos I take. I also believe that the foliage will help when grown in. If you want any other photos I am taking a reasonable amount of requests. I will also check out the Kopje.
Thank you, photos would be appreciated of both Madagascar and whatever is new with the Kopje. Also more info on the animal house would be appreciated
Yeah, not a fan of the name. The concept itself is something that I think could be really nice, but I feel like anyone on Earth could make a better name in an instant. They keep referring to it as a neighborhood. Why not call it Ambassador Avenue? It'd be nice if some concept art were included too...
Agreed, a better name is needed. I also agree that some concept art is needed so I knew what it is Im contributing to.
The magazine said Animal House is still in the planning stages, so there may not be any conceptual drawings yet. I am sure they will be coming in the near future. As for the extensive mesh for lemurs, it seems to me to be similar to Monkey Trails which people on this forum generally approve of.
Monkey Trails has a lot of nice tall mature trees as a backdrop to distract a bit from the mesh, whereas this mesh "big top" is probably not going to have anything like that for quite a while, plus I think many members were expecting some improvements over time so that this new exhibit would be more immersive than those before it. I myself just don't like the mesh big top. It's kind of distracting. You can't exactly overlook it.
The Monkey Trails comparison, from what I saw, is a good one. As the area grows with age, the more immersive it will feel for those who currently feel as if it's not. I am also guessing that the zoo looked a lot less green with under developed trees and bushes of what ever non native plant species were planted early in the zoos history. I assume it's natural environment was identical to Florida canyon adjacent to the entrance of the parking lot. I, being a native Southern Californian, need to take our local ecology into account when judging the immersion aspect of the exhibits foliage. This area looked to be coastal scrub before settlement which means almost all of the trees and vegetation in the zoo had to be transplanted and matured into what we see today. The Africa Rocks canyon, from memory, did not have what could be considered appropriate jungle type vegetation for this section which could be re purposed. I would guess it to be quite expensive to bring in more mature foliage than to plant younger versions and grow them into what is needed. Also, despite the recent rains last winter, we are prone to drought and public sentiment is currently in a redessertification of the landscape. There are a lot of pressure and financial incentives to go back to native species in our own yards, so I assume the zoo catches flak and has limitations on the use of water, if not from political groups, but maybe self imposed for PR. People don't like to see water being "wasted in so cal as their water bill goes up. I worked at Disneyland for 22 years and know we shut down completely recycled water falls and fountains because of the complaints from guests even though it didn't matter. Made it look like we were doing our part in conservation. So, the planning of Africa Rocks might have been affected by the drought, limiting the amount and size of the foliage. Sentiment is changing now because of the rains and people and governments have lightened up about water use, but it's still expensive. We basically have very little in the way of native trees left and our forested areas are less tree heavy than what the word "forest" implies. If you have ever seen early photos of Disneyland you would see a dramatic difference in the vegetation as compared to today. I look at Africa Rocks the same way. It will have to grow in for the desired effect. I just hope that's their plan as well.
I love Monkey Trails, so if this turns out to be similar to that, then that's great. I don't have an issue with mesh at all and I would choose all mesh over all glass, but of course a combination is preferred along with some open viewing if possible. The relatively new tiger complex at the Safari Park is mostly mesh along with some glass sections, and I think it's really good. Also, as someone who was at the zoo 3 weeks ago, I was impressed by what was open to the public at the time, but it would have been nice if there was more than just the one crocodile in that exhibit (I believe there was only one).
Life has interrupted my plans to attend the zoo today, sorry. Wife is exhibiting signs of a detached retina, so obviously that needs to be a priority at the moment. Thanks for understanding.
San Diego Zoo has a walk-through ring-tailed lemur exhibit at the Safari Park. The Madagascar section of the project was downsized from what was originally announced, most notably a nocturnal hall for the aye-ayes. If a walk-through lemur exhibit for Africa Rocks was planned it may have met budget-cut doom. Walk-though primates in the U.S. are not common, but there are a few of them. The Phoenix Zoo has a walk-through squirrel monkey exhibit (possibly it was the model for Singapore?). The Omaha Zoo has (had?) a walk-through lemur exhibit as part of its Madagascar exhibit.
Timmychompchomp has created an excellent and thorough visual walk-through of the new exhibit (as mentioned above). It can be found here: San Diego Zoo - A walk through Africa Rocks
I was looking through the "Fund Exhibit" portion of the Zoo's website and saw this part of the proposed "Animal House - Neighborhood" project information page. Animal House at the San Diego Zoo It states it will "transform a 60 year old area of the zoo." I'm curious where that could be exactly? I composed an email to inquire about its location, design, and if the up close and personal experiences would incur additional fees. I will report here if anyone is interested in the project details. Anyone out there no anything else?
It will be on part of the footprint of the children's zoo according to the latest Zoonooz. It is known that they are planning to bulldoze and rebuild the children's zoo, so apparently it will be part of whatever the new children's zoo will be.
Thanks, I now remember reading that somewhere, maybe earlier in this thread, or ZOONOOZ. I'll review the thread and magazine and if I get a response from the zoo, I will report back any unknown info.
The handreared Tiger cub (seized by border patrol recently) is getting a Sumatran friend from the National Zoo today Zoo’s Tiger Cub Transferred to San Diego Zoo Safari Park
