San Diego Zoo Safari Park San Diego Zoo Safari Park Species List (08/08/21)

Here's a species list of SDZSP from my visit yesterday. This isn't complete since I didn't go on a Cart/Caravan Safari to the Asian Savanna, missed Hidden Jungle, and Nairobi Station was closed so I didn't get to see all the species in that area. But I will update the thread with those species if/once I visit those areas. Please let me know if I am missing something or if you know what species are in the areas I didn't get to see, thanks!

@Julio C Castro, I know you're planning on visiting soon so if you have any updates/corrections feel free to post them here once you visit.

Entrance Habitats:

Small Box/Enclosure: Hyacinth Macaw
Pond/Island: West African Black Crowned Crane
Small Pond: Red-breasted Goose, Common Shelduck, African Sacred Ibis, Demoiselle Crane
Wings of the World Aviary: African Openbill Stork, Abdim’s Stork, African Spoonbill, Hadada Ibis, Madagascar Crested Ibis, Waldrapp Ibis, Sunbittern, White-headed Buffalo-weaver, Red-crested Turaco, Great Blue Turaco, Blue-bellied Roller, Northern Purple Roller, Hammerkop, White-crested Laughingthrush, Fairy-bluebird, Superb Starling, Surinam Crested Oropendola, Chinese Hwamei, Victoria Crowned-Pigeon, Pink Pigeon, Nicobar Pigeon, Green-Imperial Pigeon, Mindanao Bleeding-heart Dove, Taveta Golden Weaver, Scaly-sided Merganser, Baikal Teal, Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Edward’s Pheasant, Eastern Crested Guineafowl, Congo Peafowl

Nairobi Village + Surrounding Habitats:

Rocky Habitat by Thorntree Terrace: Coatimundi
Small yard: Southern Pudu
Small Dark Glass Enclosure: Black-footed Cat
Small Glass Enclosure: Sand Cat
Small Aviary: Yellow-crowned Bishop, Bali Myna, Golden Breasted Starling, Maly Great Argus Pheasant, Snowy-crowned Robin-chat
Nairobi Nursery: Southern Steenbok, Nile Lechwe, Red-flanked Duiker, Bontebok
Petting Kraal: African Pygmy Goat, Boer Goat, Jacob Sheep
Bats: Rodrigues Fruit Bat

 

Mombasa Lagoon + Surrounding Habitats

Small Enclosure: Western Tufted Deer
Small Island: East African Grey-crowned Crane
Medium Sized Yard: Chacoan Peccary
Lagoon: Red-crested Pochard, Bar-headed Goose, Swan Goose, White-faced Whistling Duck
Small Yard: Northern Sulawesi Babirusa
Lagoon: Black-crowned Night-heron, Mallard, Northern Pintail, White-breasted Cormorant
Small Glass Enclosure: Dwarf Mongoose
Small Pond: Magpie Goose, Bar-headed Goose, Hawaiian Goose, Red-breasted Goose
Lagoon: Pink backed Pelican

Lorikeet Landing & Nearby Aviaries

Lorikeet Landing: Rainbow Lorikeet
Small Aviary: White-crowned Robin-chat, White-crested Laughingthrush, Green Woodhoopoe, Ross's Turaco, Spur-winged Lapwing, Congo Peafowl
Small Aviary #2: Great Blue Turaco, White-headed Buffalo-weaver, Superb Starling, White-winged Duck, White-winged Duck
Small Aviary #3: Snowy-crowned Robin-chat, Green Woodhoopoe, White-breasted Woodswallow, Vietnam Pheasant, Laysan Duck

Gorilla Forest

Small Aviary: White-fronted Bee-eater, Chestnut-backed Thrush, Luzon Bleeding-heart Dove
Large Yard: Western Lowland Gorilla
Lemur Walk: Ring-tailed Lemur

 

African Woods

Large Hillside Yard: Empty
Large Hillside Yard #2: Addax, Addra Gazelle
Large Yard with Skeleton: Egyptian Vulture, Hooded Vulture, Common Shelduck
Large Yard: Okapi
Shady Yard: Gerenuk, Demoiselle Crane, Abyssinian Ground Hornbill
Small Yard: Blue Crane, Egyptian Goose, Yellow-billed Stork
Large Yard: Okapi
Small Enclosure: Red River Hog

African Outpost

Large Shady Yard: Secretary Bird, Kori Bustard, White Stork
Small Enclosure: Lappet-faced Vulture
Small Yard: Common Warthog
Large Island: Southern Ground Hornbill
Small Island: Lesser Flamingo
Small Island: Marabou Stork
Distant Yard: Abyssinian Ground Hornbill, Saddle-billed Stork
Grassy Yard: South African Cheetah, Domestic Dog
Large Grassy Yard: Abdim’s Stork, White-faced Whistling Duck, Red-flanked Duiker, Southern Steenbok, East African Sitatunga

 

African Plains

Small yard at Tram Loading Station: Lowland Nyala
East Africa: Generic Giraffe, Fringe Eared Oryx, Cape Buffalo, East African Grey-crowned Crane, Nile Lechwe, Southern White Rhino
Fenced off Lagoon: Greater Flamingo
Lagoon: Saddle-billed Stork
Nikita Khan Rhino Rescue Center: Southern White Rhino
South Africa: Southern Ground Hornbill (on a small island), Dalmation Pelican & Greater White Pelican (on the large island together), Springbok, Sable Antelope, Gemsbok, Masai Giraffe, Ellipsen's Waterbuck, Cape Buffalo, Patterson's Eland
Hillside Habitat: Grevy's Zebra
African Marsh Habitat: Yellow-billed Stork, Ruppell's Vulture, etc. (I couldn’t identify the rest of the birds)
Large Sandy Habitat: Soemmering's Gazelle
Large Hillside Exhibit: Dromedary Camel, Somali Wild Ass
Very Rocky Slope: Nubian Ibex
Central Africa: Eastern Black Rhino, Roan Antelope, Greater Kudu, Uganda Kob
African Forest: Red Lechwe, Roan Antelope, East African Sitatunga, Trumpeter Swan
Sandy enclosure: Grevy's Zebra
Sandy Hillside Habitat: Barbary Deer, Scimitar Horned Oryx

Lion Camp: African Lion, Striped Hyena (rotate on habitat)

Elephant Valley: African Elephant

 

Tiger Trail

Several large yards: Sumatran Tiger

Walkabout Australia

"Walkabout" area: Grey Kangaroo, Red-necked Wallaby, Magpie Goose, Radjah Shelduck, Freckled Duck
Dark Indoor Habitat: Platypus
Small Yard: Matschie's Tree Kangaroo
Large leafy yard: Southern Cassowary
Large leafy yard #2: Southern Cassowary

Condor Ridge & Surrounding Habitats

Small Aviary: Thick-billed Parrot
Large Aviary: Bald Eagle
Small Aviary: Elegant Crested Tinamou, Toco Toucan
Small Aviary: Guianan Toucanet, Grey-winged Trumpeter (unsigned)
Small Aviary: Harris's Hawk
Small Enclosure: Western Burrowing Owl, Desert Tortoise
Rocky Hillside Exhibit: Desert Bighorn Sheep
Large Aviary: California Condor

 

It's so weird that they are using the former prairie-dog and black-footed ferret enclosures for South American birds now...

 

I think the small pond areas in between Wings of the World aviary and Mombasa Lagoon are missing here from the current listing updated by @Animals R AMAZING!. Storm’s Stork was there with a few bird species including the Red Breasted Goose and Nene in one of the ponds.

Also aren’t there herds of Impala, Defassa’s Waterbuck, and Thompson’s Gazelle in the East Africa field exhibit? Otherwise this list seems pretty on point with the listings based on my last visit a couple weeks ago will make any corrections and additions next month when visiting!

 

Thanks for the corrections @Julio C Castro. Looks like I missed that area and also forgot to include another pond around there that had Chilean Flamingo, Lesser Flamingo, Southern Screamer, Swan Goose, Hawaiian Goose, Chiloe Wigeon, and African Comb Duck. I didn't see any impala, waterbuck, or Thompson's gazelle in East Africa (or anywhere for that matter) and our tour guide didn't say anything about them either. However, I believe the park does hold all those species so I'll be on the lookout for those next time!

 

Here are a couple updates that I've been meaning to post from my last couple visits.

There is a single palm cockatoo in here as well now.

The tufted deer have been replaced with red-flanked duiker.

There is a pair of red-cheeked gibbons in here now.

There are slender-horned gazelles in here now.

There are Nile Lechwe in here with the zebra now.

I missed this earlier but there is also impala, Thomson's gazelle, and Defassa waterbuck, as @Julio C Castro reported, as well as wildebeest in East Africa.

 

Are Bongo & Red-Fronted Gazelle gone? Disappointing, if so.

 

The should have a herd of Mountain Bongo at the African forest section on the Africa Team. As for Red Fronted Gazelles, I believe they may be a phase-out specie from their collection and in the AZA program in general.

 

Don't you just love arbitrarily-deemed "phase-out" species that pose great conservation importance? And don't you also just love species monotony in zoos?

 

It’s a sad loss to see some rare and endangered species being phased out, especially ungulates :/ I know the Safari Park had a recent change in the breeding management so it’s more sustainable, possibly being partially responsible for some phase out species at their facility. I think now most AZA zoos and sustainability partners are trying focus on creating sustainable populations of ungulates, which means potentially focusing on a smaller amount of species instead of spreading themselves thin. Maybe I’m wrong but that’s what I’ve gathered from talks on here and the AZA meetings posted online.

 

The safari park was the only AZA holder of Red-fronted Gazelle though, and I think they didn't have many left. I don't think there's many privately, likely only whoever got the park's. So while the species is of conservation importance, the population was not viable by any stretch and thus was phased out. So not exactly "arbitrarily-deemed" - they were in fact on their own way out. There are hardly any left in the US, and none in Europe; the species is at Al Wabra I believe, but other than that I think the species will basically be gone from captivity. Maybe the US population could have been better managed some years ago, but I don't know enough to say.

 

I’ve been meaning to reply to the this for awhile now— when I was there in May, the female red-fronted gazelles were in the Central African exhibit, and the males were the Forest exhibit. There were plans to move the remaining animals out to the additional holder in the private sector, but I do not know whether or not that has happened yet.
Also looking at the original list, the Bactrian deer were in the North African habitat with the scimitars, Barbary deer, and a male Defassa waterbuck. They were also due to leave; however, so I don’t know whether they are still there or not.

 

Thanks for letting us know! So both red fronted gazelle and bactrian deer are on phase out?

 

What ever happened to the small herd of Kiang that called wild animal park home?

 

I see this as an enormous red flag. In my mind, I keeping note of places reading how rarer species are just thought a lost cause due to low numbers in captivity. I realize it's a different ball game these days importing animals, but to reflect on how wonderful a species is and do little to nothing to foster captive captive breeding is an enormous red flag regard any serious of preserving endangered wildlife. Appears to much focused on catering to public's interest . Indeed monotony is raining very popular with every zoo having the same animals. Maybe too that's why zoo's are being run and ruined by CEO directors rather than actual humans that have indepth animal knowledge and experience.

 

I worry that this might diminish the educational value of zoos -
big-name species are essentially required for any zoo to function. Howletts of the UK probably would not be popular in absentia of lions and elephants etc, and Hamerton of the UK as well might not be too successful without having tigers.
But one of the great potentials of a zoo is to introduce the public to animals they have not experienced before - animals who do not advertise petrol or appear in nursery books. And the way it seems, is that almost every big-name zoo in the United States is morphing to become uncannily similar to the next one - the same lions, the same tigers, same elephants...and this means that a number of truly unique species are left by the wayside in lowbar wire-and-glue collections. Is the American keeping and displaying of animals to be relegated to another corporate model?

 

YES, YES, and Yes "Is the American keeping and displaying of animals to be relegated to another corporate model!!!

One reads about it over and over again when it is suggested zoo's don't have room x endangered species programs with low numbers of this species. Instead of zoo's championing to adding to and building a program for say the Mountian Tapir let's just label it a lost cause never mind how endangered they are. Hunter's Haarbeest forget never mind the efforts that went into helping the Addax in the recent past. Why does the San Diego Zoo hold the only pair of platypus problabley cause reasons of connection in Australian, money, and excellent animal management practices. Just think of the entire United States as one big zoo just managing to keep what animals are left alive. In human terms for to many species man has determined there's no room in his ark cause zoo today catering to the human entitlements. Gone today is zoological understanding due to we must be culturely sensitive to understanding cultures than importance of animal welfare. Take a good study of total mess of how the San Francisco Zoo is being run it's a mess. Heavy topic just scratching the surface. It's all about understanding and learning about animals. We don't need another corporate model, rather the model should be being aware we share this planet with other life forms whom our very existence depends upon their existence!