This or That: San Diego Zoo or Safari Park?

Amazing work! A question: rhed fronted gazelles are visibles in the SDZSP?

 

Thank you! Yes, I believe so. I saw them in the African Forest habitat a few months ago. Though there were only a few left.

 

Thanks! I'm sad because I've seen that there is no more Grant's gazelles, but at least I hope to see the rest of the gazelles, in April I will travel to California from Barcelona (Spain) and I hope to see rare species that we don't have in Europe.

 

I don't think the casqued hornbills or European Rollers are present anymore. I didn't see either on my visit last August. In 2018 I saw three roller species at the Safari Park but I think only Blue-Bellied remains, sadly.

~Thylo

 

Rarity List #2: Ungulata
Note: I was not planning on duplicating any groups of animals in both the collection comparisons and rarity lists but I decided ungulates would be interesting enough for both. I’m sure all of you already know the winner of this post but I think it’ll be interesting to list out all the rarities.​

San Diego Zoo:

Siberian Reindeer
Siberian Musk Deer
Giant Eland
Royal Antelope
Black Duiker
Soemmerring's Gazelle

San Diego Zoo Safari Park:

Soemmerring’s Gazelle
Fringe Eared Oryx
Red Fronted Gazelle
Uganda Kob
Defassa Waterbuck
Southern Steenbok
Barbary Deer
Indian Muntjac
Javan Banteng
Gaur
Eld’s Deer
White-lipped Deer
Bactrian Deer
Malayan Sambar
Indian Sambar
Manchurian Sika
Vietnamese Sika
Transcaspian Urial

Despite having significantly downsized its ungulate collection since the closing of Horn and Hoof Mesa, the zoo still has a pretty good lineup consisting of 6 rarities. They are the sole holder of 2 of these taxa, Siberian Reindeer and the well-known bts Royal Antelope. The park is home to 18 rarities which is quite impressive and 5 of these taxa are only held by the park and at no other (public) collection in North America. Unfortunately, the majority of these rarities (at both facilities) are being phased out or are likely to be phased out soon.

I have not seen either of those species at the park and had assumed they were being kept bts but considering how rare both those species are, it wouldn't be surprising if they are no longer there at all. The park still keeps both Blue-bellied and Northern Purple Roller in Wings of the World.

 

This is a really great thread. We have a few threads on SDZ and SDZSF species lists but it’s great to see a thread that fully displays the differences between the two. I’m really hoping to see examples of how many of the newer developments in both parks have very different designs to fit the space and theme of the zoo/park. Can’t wait to see the next post.

 

It's coming I have been working on that thing for at least an hour a day, nearly every day, for months. Confirming stuff is really difficult sometimes, on top of the lists being much, much longer.

 

The Purple Roller I saw no sign for or sight of back in August. They were the third species present in the aviary in 2018.

The thread is so difficult to stay on top of, especially for species like Plains Zebra I've considered making it AZA and then notable non-AZA places only and cutting out places that only have one or two common species in order to make the lists more concise and tbh useful to the average person reading, but then I feel bad because I've done so much work and more recently you've been doing so much work trying to confirm stuff so we're not just relying on USDA alone which can sometimes be inaccurate for ungulates (like removing Eld's Deer from DAK when it's still present).

~Thylo

 

When did you visit in August? I have a picture of the signage in Wings of the World with Purple Roller from my visit on August 8th. Unfortunately, I don’t have any more recent pictures of the sign since the aviary was closed when I visited a few weeks back. Perhaps, the species was removed shortly after my August visit?

Sounds like so much work! Kudos to you both for working so hard on it. It’s very much appreciated by all us ungulates lovers! Take your time with it, I didn’t mean to rush you guys or anything.

 

I visited in mid-August, the 13th.

I'm glad you've enjoyed/found use in the ungulates thread!

~Thylo

 

San Diego Zoo and Safari Park are equally good and both are also 50 times as good SeaWorld San Diego if you're wanting to go to see animals.

 

That generally makes sense as SeaWorld is a theme park and San Diego Zoo and Safari Park are zoos..

 

Yes, the zoo and park are both excellent facilities in their own ways. SeaWorld may be considered a theme park but it has a very good animal collection as well. A ton (maybe even a majority) of their animals can only be found at a few other facilities across the country. And a few habitats like the penguin house are some of the best of their kind in the US. It goes without saying that SDZ and SDZSP are better zoos/aquariums than SWSD but "50 times as good" is a bit of a stretch, I certainly would recommend visiting SWSD if one comes down to San Diego. Especially since a majority of SeaWorld's collection cannot be found at either of SDZWA's parks.

 

It's the non-AZA with a bunch of species that have been hardest, all the safari places popping up and whatnot, and many of them have rare ones that should be included. I changed tactic this week, started going through bison and whitetail and elk, because so many of those places have just one or two species to find, and it's been a breeze!

 

SeaWorld is a fantastic facility, it just has less major animals because it's a specialist facility, obviously. As @Animals R AMAZING! said, many of their species are rare, and not just the cetaceans. They're the only holder of Emperor Penguin in the USA, for example.

 

Sorry for the long wait but I'm back with...

Collection Comparison #3: Cats (Felidae)​

SDZ holds the following felid species:

African lion (Panthera leo)
Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis)
Jaguar (Panthera onca)
Snow Leopard (Panthera uncia)
Malayan Tiger (Panthera tigris jacksoni)
Mountain Lion (Puma concolor)
South African Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus jubatus)
Clouded Leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) - bts
Bobcat (Lynx rufus) - bts, on display in new Children's Zoo?
Canadian Lynx (Lynx canadensis)
Serval (Leptailurus serval)
Ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) - bts, on display in new Children's Zoo?
Fishing Cat (Prionailurus viverrinus)

SDZSP holds the following felid species:

African lion (Panthera leo)
Sumatran Tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae)
Serval (Leptailurus serval) - bts, ambassador animals
Ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) - bts
South African Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus jubatus)
Sand Cat (Felis margarita)
Black-Footed Cat (Felis nigripes)
Caracal (Caracal caracal) - bts, ambassador animals

The zoo holds 12 taxa while the park holds 8 so clearly, the zoo wins out here. Overall, it's evident that both facilities together have quite an impressive cat collection. While the park has developed its smaller felid collection, the zoo has mainly focused on larger felids including all 5 Panthera species plus clouded leopard, mountain lion, and cheetah. It should also be noted that almost all of the breeding done for all of these species has been at the park in recent years, as only serval and Amur leopard have bred at the zoo in the last few years. In the end, we can all agree that SDZ is clearly the top dog here, collection-wise, but habitat quality is another story.

 

It should be noted that approximately 3 species at each park are BTS and not routinely out for demonstrations, most likely due to COVID restrictions. Clouded Leopard, Bobcat, and Ocelot at the zoo aren’t on public display. As for the SDZSP: Ocelot, Caracal, and Serval aren’t on display either. However, some cat ambassadors may be present when the new Wildlife Explorers Basecamp opens in a few weeks so who knows

 

You are correct, I should've specified in my original post, I will edit it! The bobcats and ocelot at the zoo should both go on display in the new Children's Zoo iirc. The caracal and serval at the park are all ambassador animals and occasionally make appearances.

 

The zoo should also still have Eurasian Lynx bts.

 

I did not know that. Do you have a source for this? Not that I don't believe you, I have just never heard of this before. The majority of Eurasian lynxes in the US are in non-AZA and roadside zoos so I'm skeptical that the zoo has some especially since they already have bobcat and Canadian lynx.