San Diego Zoo What to do with Urban Jungle?

Urban Jungle will hopefully be the next part of the zoo that is renovated and redone. What would you turn the area into or what do you think they will turn it into?

Personally, I would add it as part of the Australian Outback theme and build exhibits for their red kangaroos, wombats, echidnas, tree kangaroos, and wallabies, as well as building a new exhibit for the freshwater crocs,

I think they could bring in some emus or cassowaries as well as some quolls.

That's what I hope they will eventually convert it into. I'm interested to hear other thoughts.

 

I figured it'd probably be Bear Canyon next,or that absolutely dreadful hill next to Polar Bear Plunge,which would make more sense since part of the reasoning for this project was to make Cat Canyon more ADA compliant. As for Urban Jungle,I love your idea for an Australian area, or perhaps some sort of new North American area,with a nice new grizzly bear exhibit. Literally anything would be better than that geographical hellhole its got going on now...

 

I agree that urban jungle is an embarrassment now, and I too would want to see it fully bulldozed and replaced by further Australian exhibits. I suppose there are 2 major hurdles to this; one being the relocation of giraffes, which the zoo probably feels they need to keep on display. I wonder if there is the space to build a new exhibit between the kopje and elephant odyssey exhibits since it is a level area, but would require destruction of the meerkat exhibit and some of the large support facility behind it. I suspect the remains of horn and hoof Mesa near the skyfari are too steep for giraffes and probably destined to be further temperate exhibits like the new mountain lion exhibit. The other hurdle is the question of how successful the Backstage Pass program is; if it is a clear moneymaker, it would need a relocation space as well and it requires a concentrated area of various enclosures for various random contact animals.

 

They should put the rhinos/zebras/giraffes into a large savannah or ship them out and add a little penguin building or maybe a "feed the deer" type thing. Make like a big corral with fallow deer maybe and you can buy carrots to feed them, like ASWP in Ohio kinda. Maybe camel rides or something.

 

I was wondering the same thing about the giraffes, as I'm not exactly sure where they'd fit in,same thing with the rhinos. They're both very popular species, so I doubt San Diego would want to remove them altogether.

 

I'm not familiar with the layout of San Diego Zoo, so correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Urban Jungle close to the new African Rocks complex? Perhaps the giraffes could get a larger enclosure inside the area of Urban Jungle and they can call it part of African Rocks.

 

Yes, in fact according to the map they'll be right next to each other basically. The only issues would be what to do with the non-African animals in Urban Jungle, most importantly the rhinoceros and kangaroos, but that could work.

 

They can make the rest of Urban Jungle part of the African Rocks expansion probably. The zoo seems to have animals of different continents scattered all over the zoo, so perhaps they could move the African ones down to the area that is Urban Jungle. For example, I believe they have Grevy's Zebras in Northern Frontier, and they can be brought down to a renovated Urban Jungle area.

 

They're incorporating the zebras already in the Africa Rocks exhibit. The plan shows they'll probably be at the top of the hill just after the kopje exhibit.

 

Thank you for correcting me. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say, the zebras just weren't the best examples.

 

With EO, they cleared trees, graded and stabilized the soil. Think about the difference between EO and Africa Rocks in topography. They are adding walls, stabilizing and making the revamped Africa Rocks ADA friendly, with the windy paths like Lombard St. in San Francisco. As Geomorph mentioned, there is a large support area between EO and AR currently that is pretty flat. They won't destroy that area just to “please" the nerds zoo-geography adamancy for Giraffes and other African Animals. As for UJ, the elevation is too much and to grade and stabilize the soil will lose many trees and other vegetation not to mention cost a fortune. Add in the new bus tour roads and new paths, it just won't happen. Turning UJ into an extended Aus' area won't work either. As for the Grizzlies, they can be moved to NF, as Polar Bears can be North American or Eurasian like Brown Bears. It is called NF, and that can reference any northern area. Revamp UJ, facilities and exhibit furniture for the Stars of the shows. Giraffes can stay, maybe expand the yard as everyone loves giraffes. The G o-h rhino should stay, to convey the success SDZG has had with the species at SDZSP. No Zoo will ever be perfect, and SDZ has their faults, but unlike the majority of Zoos, they are revamping their exhibits and facilities at a solid rate, much like STLZ, Columbus, Hogle, Fresno Chaffee and a few others.

 

I wasn't aware of the topography of Urban Jungle and its contrast to Elephant Odyssey and African Rocks, but what you say now makes sense.

 

Out of curiosity, why wouldn't an extended Australian area work? And the Grizzlies could definitely be moved to Northern Frontier, but I'm wondering what could be done if the Asian passage was renovated. A nice Asian exhibit to go next to the sun bears I suppose.

 

Urban Jungle will not be next because the Back Stage Pass brings in the revenue. That is the greatest hurdle to them addressing that area.

But how is UJ's elevation too much? It used to be called Elephant Mesa, meaning it is really flat.

As for rough valleys with steep incline, there will always be a way to take people down there. Either with elevated walkways or numerous switchbacks. Of course bringing in dirt costs money.

Children Zoo could use some attention. I cannot believe that no one notices the numerous "cages." Updating signage and adding a theater does not count as addressing many of the old exhibits.

Sptaialy, UJ is so small, it would be a lot better if it did not have a tour road next to it.

Africa Rocks looks like it goes right next to the new Outback. I am sure there will be some attempt to address Outback in someway seeing as the Camels are moving out. Though unlikely I hope the Tree roo area is somehow magically improved through the Africa Rocks project.

 

From the looks of the plans it looks like the tree roo area and the camel area are going to be used in the Africa Rocks part I think it's gonna be part of the zebra exhibit. Might mean the tree roos are moved off-exhibit.

 

I am impressed. I thought the new road was starting from the service road between camel and roo but it is not. I just took the plan and put it on a google maps image and it looks like the new road goes through the old parma wallaby exhibit/new ADA walkway down to Outback.

I did not realize the new road practically hugs Elephant Mesa and goes through the old cat canyon exhibits. I thought it was going to move but not that much.

Wow, they are altering the terrain a lot more than I expected. Its like they are filling in the whole canyon to make it as gradual as a slope as possible. If this is correct, it looks like they are making the entrance right next to the Koala Climber in Outback... I will upload the plan with aerial image to the gallery so others can see.

Here is the link: http://www.zoochat.com/39/africa-rocks-plan-google-392198/

For the purpose of remaining on topic, I was told by a docent when Outback opened that they were going to rebuild the Kiwi House at some point. Not sure if that is true, but since Outback does not fully showcase their Australian collection (zoological AND botanical), it would be nice to see an expansion.

 

I was talking of the elevation between UJ, AR and EO.

 

Re: Kiwi House at the bottom of bear canyon(by Outback). Bear Canyon could be turned into a south american area as the Zoo lacks one of these, Bears and Otters could be moved to NF and the hyenas and monkeys transferred to African Rocks.
On to Urban Jungle, move the kangaroos to the Outback. Bring the remaining Ungulates from NF here to share an exhibit with giraffes which would loop around the G-O-H rhinos in the center.

 

Could be turned into a new exhibit called Europe Wild! with many species sure as cinereous vulture, red squirrel and bearded vulture. And a grassy area for Roe and Red deer.

 

Here is what I think should happen (WARNING: it applies to other parts of the zoo other than Urban Jungle):

Also, this is all just dreams and will not happen ever at all, so don't be too critical:

1. Combine UJ with africa rocks

2. Move the kangaroos to the empty space in the outback

3. Put a different kind of rhino in the GOH rhino exhibit, and move the GOH brothers to asian passage

4. Move the hyena brothers to Urban Jungle (now called africa rocks, since it joined the already africa rocks area)

Here is how I would change asian passage, which is seemingly un-asian:

1. Move all the brown bears to northern frontier and make a exhibit there that isn't a grotto (note: the current brown bear exhibit isn't really that bad since the animals like it, I would just move them for consistency)

2. Combine asian passage with panda canyon to just be a large asain passage section of the zoo.

3. Since andean bears are misplaced in Asian Passage, I would make a south american area (or put them in the lost forest).

If they made a south american area:

3A. At the bottom of Asian Passage, or in the part of discovery outpost with the ocelots and rio 4D theater, I would make a south american area, with the maned wolves (who are currently in northern frontier), giant anteaters (who were in africa rocks before the construction going on right now. I don't know where they'll be after africa rocks is set up), and andean bears (asian passage), and whatever else they have for south american animals (giant otters?) can be moved there. I would keep jaguars in EO because that exhibit is fine. If they wanted to they could move them but they are keeping lions in EO instead of putting them in africa rocks so I don't think it really matters. If they did move the jaguars to a south american exhibit then they could make the current lion exhibit, which everyone dislikes so much, bigger.

The only bad thing about a south american region is they would be competition for the LA zoo's new rainforest of the americas, but they actually wouldn't be because by the time they would theoretically get around to building something like this, rainforest of the americas will be at least 5 years old. (since they wouldn't do it while africa rocks is being built (and will be finished by 2017) and they would still plan for another few years, like how it was a few years between when EO finished and AR started)

Theres also some misplaced hoof stock and gibbons in Northern Frontier, but I think the hoof stock is getting dealt with (zebras in the future africa rocks)